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A growing set of barrier tests has to be taken into account to design side impact restraints meeting worldwide safety requirements. This paper shows an efficient design process to meet side impact requirements using smart testing and simulation. While full vehicle FE structural analysis is widely used, model sizes have been increasing which prohibits efficient design optimisation. The use of Prescribed Structural Motion (PSM) provides an efficient alternative for restraint optimisation. The objective in a typical PSM simulation is to approximate a complex (CPU expensive) loading scenario by prescribing (a part of the) structural nodal positions in time. Results show that design modifications based on MADYMO PSM simulation provide the expected safety performance in hardware testing. Furthermore, it will be shown that the ModeFRONTIER optimisation and stochastics can be effectively used to optimize the design while taking design robustness into account.

Across the world different regulations are applicable for frontal impact, each require a different restraint system approach. However it would be much more cost effective to develop one single restraint system suitable for all global requirements. Flexible and reliable development approach has to be used for quick evaluations of various safety system configurations and conditions. An efficient methodology has been developed to optimize the frontal restraint system for multiple load cases simultaneously, Resultant restraint system specification to specification to meet global targets. The methodology combines the use of testing and MADYMO modelling techniques in combination with advanced DoE (Design of Experiments) analysis to find a solution in the most effective way. An example will be given for a optimised restraint design to meet European and US requirements.