Enhancement of vehicle crash and occupant safety : a new integrated vehicle dynamics control systems/front-end structure mathematical model

• Main Author: Elkady, Mustafa
• Published: University of Sunderland 2012
• Subjects: 629.28
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.574445

Nowadays, occupant safety becomes one of the most important research area and the automotive industry increased their efforts for enhancing the safety of the vehicles. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of vehicle dynamics control systems (VDCS) on both the collision of the vehicle body and the kinematics behaviour of the vehicle's occupant. In this work, a novel vehicle dynamics/crash mathematical model is proposed and developed to co-simulate the crash event with the VDCS. This model is achieved using the novel approach of integrating front-end structure and vehicle dynamics mathematical models. The proposed mathematical model integrates both anti-lock braking systems (ASS) and active suspension control (ASC) systems alongside with crash structure modelling. This model is developed by generating its equations of motion and solving them numerically, this approach is used due to its quick and accurate analysis. In addition, a new multi-body occupant mathematical model is developed to capture the occupant kinematics before and during the collision. Validations of the proposed mathematical models are achieved to ensure their accuracy by comparing the simulated results with other real crash test data and former models results. The validation analysis of the vehicle and occupant models shows that the comparison results are well matched and the models are valid and can be used for different crash scenarios. The numerical simulation results are divided into two parts for vehicle and occupant models, respectively. Related to the vehicle model, it is shown that the mathematical model is flexible and useful for optimization studies. The results show that the deformation of the front-end structure is reduced, the vehicle body pitching and yawing angles are notably reduced, and the vehicle pitching acceleration is greatly reduced. Related to the occupant model, it is shown that the VDCS does have a significant effect on the rotations of the occupant's chest and head owing to its effect on the vehicle pitching. In addition, the occupant's deceleration is also slightly decreased and the occupant safety is improved.