Evaluation of new steel and composite beam designs for side impact protection of a sedan as per FMVSS 214, IIHS and side pole tests requirements
Abstract
Side impact crashes can be generally quite dangerous due to the limited space in the car
door for large deformation and energy-dissipation in order to protect an occupant from the crash
forces. The side impact collision is the second largest cause of death in United States after frontal
crash. Day-by-day increase in the fuel cost and the emission of the smoke from the automobile
industry are also the major concerns in the contemporary world. Hence the safety, fuel efficiency
and emission gas regulation of the passenger cars are important issues in contemporary world.
An ideal way to increase the fuel efficiency without sacrificing the safety is to employ composite
materials in the body of the cars because the composite materials have higher specific strength
than those of steel. The increase in the usage of composite material directly influences the
decrease in the total weight of car and gas emission. In this research, carbon/epoxy AS4/3051-6
is used as composite material for a side impact beam design, which has adequate load carrying
capacities and that it absorbs more strain energy than steel.
The finite element (FE) models of a typical passenger car and the moving deformable
barrier (MDB), as available in literature, have been utilized for the analysis in this thesis. The
current side impact beam is removed from the car and the new beam, which is designed using
CATIA, is merged on to the driver side of the front door of the car model. The total energy
absorptions of the new beam with steel and composite material are compared with those of the
current beam in three-point bending test simulations. The surface plots for mass (weight),
specific energy, and intrusion are developed as design charts. The intrusions of the beam are then
evaluated by using the full-vehicle models and as per regulatory FMVSS 214, IIHS and Side
Pole impact safety methods. The new impact beam with composite material is shown to exhibit
higher impact energy absorption capability, when compared to current beam and new beam with
steel, with 62.5% reduction in weight.
Description
Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering