Development of Validated Finite Element Model of Passenger Car Suitable to Simulate Collisions Against Road Safety Barriers

The effectiveness of FEM (Finite element method) approach to improve crashworthiness, both from vehicle viewpoint and from road safety hardware one has been plainly demonstrated in literature. Of course, this is possible only when models calibrated in a wide range of impact conditions are available. In this work, a multipurpose finite element model of a light weight passenger car is presented. The model has been set up through an extensive comparison between full-scale and simulated outputs of four different experiments: the frontal and oblique collisions against a concrete wall and the impacts against two types of steel barrier with different containment energy level (127kJ and 724kJ). The differences between these impacts are related to (i) the stiffness of the safety devices and to (ii) the height where the vehicle collides against the barriers. Therefore, the considered situations are representative of a wide range of impact conditions The fundamental steps of the modelling process will be described along with all the particulars needed to reproduce the four full scale tests. Data comparison between full-scale and FE simulation concerns time histories of longitudinal and transversal acceleration of CG’s vehicle, ASI, THIV, PHD, pitch and roll angle, velocity variation in the vehicle direction and residual displacements of the barrier. The excellent agreement attained when simulating the abovementioned impacts, characterized by noticeably different nature, demonstrates that the modelling processes of vehicle and devices were accurate and that, in particular, the FE model of the passenger car is suitable for a wide range of impact conditions. As a conclusion, the validated model is reliable to foresee the impact behaviour without needing expensive crash tests