Structure Improvement of the S Beam Based on the Safety of SUV

Abstract

The S beam of a production SUV appeared instable deformation in frontal crash test, which was not beneficial to occupant protection. So the deformation of S beam should be controlled to improve the crashworthiness. Inner improvement structures were proposed according to the prototype S beam. A frontal crash FE model and a multi-rigid body model were developed and validated to investigate the crash safety of frontal impact. The influences of the improvements to the deformation of S beam and the energy absorption of longitudinal beams were analyzed by the FE model, and the injury risks of head and thoraces were analyzed by the multi-rigid body model. The better improvement structure was adopted in the frame for the crash test to validate the effectiveness of improved scheme, and the result shows better crash performance of frontal impact for prototype vehicle. Meanwhile, simulation study on crash safety of 40% offset crash were also conducted, which indicated that improved scheme was also beneficial for crash safety of 40% offset crash.