The paper considers the structure of a vehicle surrounding the occupant compartment which is designed to crush in an accident in order to limit the forces that are transmitted to its occupants. Crush initiators are stress concentrations that are incorporated into automobile frame members to ensure a stable collapse process and to limit peak loads. Using finite element analysis, a parametric study of the effects of crush initiator geometry on peak and mean crush forcesof a thin-walled, square steel tube axially loaded impact conditions was conducted. Three crush initiator shapes were examined: a transverse bead on two sides of the tube cross section, a diamond notch on each of the four corners, and a circular hole on the corners. For each shape, three sizes of initiators were analysed and compared with an unnotched baseline specimen with respect to the peak load and energy absorbed
Abstract