Aluminum intensive vehicles
developed in recent years illustrated that vehicle weight reduction
and consequential fuel saving are possible while maintaining the
performance and manufacturability of contemporary steel designs.
There are numerous processing and in-service performance requirements
for structural materials in automotive applications. Vehicle
collision tests are often the most critical automotive design
requirements. The computational models of vehicle impact need to
capture complex deformation occurring during impact, and it is not
unusual to have vehicle models consisting of 50,000 or more finite
elements.
The dissipation of the impact energy and the extent of deformation have
to be accurately calculated in order to result in a realistic crash
simulation model that can be applied to various impact scenarios. It
is also critical that material behavior be well understood in complex
impact loading in order to design structures and mechanisms that
protect vehicle occupants.
This project is focused on the development of a detailed
crashworthiness model of aluminum intensive vehicle using
computational simulations. The developed model will be primarily used
as a simulation platform for evaluation and prediction of the effects
of advanced manufacturing and materials processing techniques in
automotive impact conditions. A verified simulation model will allow
for simple component, material and other design modification. The
project will also provide an assessment of integrated design and
performance of aluminum in automotive collisions with a range of
vehicles that are currently being built and representative of the US
car fleet.
Acknowledgment
Research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Assistant
Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of
Transportation Technologies, Lightweight Materials Program, under
contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC.
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