Interior Head Impact Analysis of Automotive Instrument Panel for Unrestrained Front Seat Passengers

Abstract

This study presents the numerical and experimental interior head impact analysis of automotive instrument panel according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Regulation 21 (ECE R21). To minimize the possible injury risk for unrestrained front seat passengers due to the interior head impact with the instrument panel, the panel design needs to meet the ECE R21 standard which defines a pendulum-type head form as the impactor. The measured acceleration response of the head form should not exceed 80g continuously for more than 3ms. Motivated by the need to develop a simulation-based technique to evaluate the design of the instrument panel, a numerical model based on the explicit dynamic finite element analysis (FEA) by using the commercial FEA solver, LS-DYNA, is developed. To minimize the experimental cost, a gravity-based impactor with a smaller impact speed is develop as the test apparatus for verification purpose. The simulated results agree well with the experimental data; the average accuracy for the maximum value of impact acceleration at the head form is 95.4%. After the verification, the standard test conditions (with higher impact speed) are performed to evaluate the design. The outcome of this study can provide an efficient and cost-effective method to predict and improve the design of the instrument panel for interior head impact protection.