The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has sponsored the development of a finite element structural analysis computer program called WRECKER. Although there are many other finite element programs in addition to WRECKER, the others generally lack two features essential to the analysis of automotive structures under crash loadings. One feature is the ability to accurately handle the very large displacements and rotations typical of a smashed car. The other feature is the ability to effectively model the material's properties and the types of irregular shapes found in cars. NHTSA's primary objective in developing WRECKER is to have this powerful tool available to aid it in developing new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). A second objective is to actively make the program available to the automotive structural development community in the interest of improving the safety of future automobile designs.
Samenvatting