The overall expanding mobility results specially on roads in a higher traffic intensity. Consequently, the risk to get involved in a crash increases. To cut back injuries ensuing from these crahses, the so-called "passive safety" of vehicles is improved. A minimum passive safety level is enforced governmentally via legislation. Passive safety in side impact crashes is now in the centre of attention due to the renewed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 214 for the United States and its for 1998 planned European counterpart. Analysis techniques are applied to evaluate the crashworthiness. In numerical crash simulations no physical structure (a proto-type) is required. The crash behaviour can be predicted via a numerical model of the structure. This enables the comparison of structural concepts at an early stage, so only the most promising are elaborated. This procedure is of special importance for side impact safety because as yet no general mature side impact safety concept exists. By application of the so-called "Quality Function Deployment" technique, criteria are assessed that have to be met for a sensible application of the procedure in the vehicle design process. The generation of a numerical model of safety concepts, already before detailed geometric data is known, is discussed here. With such models, functions can be assessed that must be fulfilled by the elements of the vehicle structure. A proposal for a step-by-step procedure to design the vehicle structure is presented. After each step, a more detailed numerical model is used to verify if the formulated functions are fulfilled. The procedure is checked on meeting the criteria for a sensible application in the vehicle design process. With common numerical tools the presented procedure is feasible. However, certain deformations require to much calculation time. As a consequence, the stated criteria are not always met. The in this project used FEM model of the Eurosid appears decisive for the time-step that is applied in the calculations. Thus, a change in the dummy model offers perspective to reduce the calculation time. (A)
Abstract