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Recent field data have shown that the occupant protection in vehicle rear seats failed to keep pace with advances in the front seats likely due to the lack of advanced safety technologies. The objective of this study was to optimize advanced restraint systems for protecting rear seat occupants with a range of body sizes under different frontal crash pulses. Three series of sled tests (baseline tests, advanced restraint trial tests, and final tests), MADYMO model validations against a subset of the sled tests, and design optimizations using the validated models were conducted to investigate rear seat occupant protection with 4 Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs) and 2 crash pulses.

Define recommendations for color coding of child restraint labels, specifically focused on the information contained therein and whether it provides information for installation in a forward facing, rear facing, or booster mode.

1. SCOPE These guidelines should be considered: When implementing the LATCH system in vehicle seating positions that will be designated by the vehicle owner’s manual and in the information included in the owners manual. When implementing the LATCH system in child restraint designs that include the LATCH system and in the information included in the instruction manual

A generalized MADYMO minor rear crash vehicle model with BioRIDII ATD was developed and validated using the mean response of previously published 12 km/h delta-V rear crash tests. BioRIDII simulation pelvis, thorax and head x-axis accelerations, as well as head y-axis angular acceleration, fell within corridors defining +/- one standard deviation of the mean BioRIDII crash test responses. Peak sagittal plane BioRIDII upper neck forces and moments in the simulation were on par with the mean values observed from the crash tests. After the model was validated for 12 km/h delta-V, the model was further exercised by performing simulations with (1) a Hybrid III 50th percentile occupant and (2) by reducing the pulse by 40% of its original value. Results indicate that this generalized minor rear crash model could be useful in accurately estimating occupant kinematics and kinetics in minor crashes up to at least 12 km/h delta-V as an alternative to expensive and time consuming crash testing.

This paper describes an effective integrated method for estimation of subject-specific mass, inertia tensor, and center of mass of individual body segments of a digital avatar for use with physics-based digital human modeling simulation environment. One of the main goals of digital human modeling and simulation environments is that a user should be able to change the avatar (from male to female to a child) at any given time. The user should also be able to change the various link dimensions, like lengths of upper and lower arms, lengths of upper and lower legs, etc. These customizations in digital avatar's geometry change the kinematic and dynamic properties of various segments of its body. Hence, the mass and center of mass/inertia data of the segments must be updated before simulating physics-based realistic motions. Most of the current methods use mass and inertia properties calculated from a set of regression equations based on average of some population.

This paper focuses on full body dynamical analysis of car ingress/egress motion. It aims at proposing an experimental protocol adapted for analysing joint loads using inverse dynamics. Two preliminary studies were first performed in order to 1/ define the main driver/car interactions so as to allow measuring the contact forces at all possible contact zones and 2/ identify the design parameters that mainly influence the discomfort. In order to verify the feasibility of the protocol, a laboratory study was carried out, during which two subjects tested two car configurations. The experimental equipment was composed of a variable car mock-up, an optoelectronic motion tracking system, two 6D-force plates installed on the ground next to the doorframe and on the car floor, a 6D-Force sensor between the steering wheel and the steering column, and two pressure maps on the seat. Motions were reconstructed from measured surface markers trajectories using inverse kinematics.

Brake judder is about oscillations excited by brake application, which are generated in the contact area between brake pad and brake disc and are transmitted by the elements of the suspension to body and steering system. The driver perceives these perturbations as brake pedal pulsations, steering wheel rotational and body vibrations. The evaluation of a suspension concerning brake judder often takes place for the first time in road tests, since established simulation processes with a high significance concerning ride comfort are missing. At such a late moment necessary modifications in the development process are only hardly possible and very expensive. For avoiding brake judder a systematic development process is needed for brake and suspension. Each one can separately be improved in measurably borders so that their assembly is free of cold brake judder. The present paper shows appropriate test and simulation methods to achieve this.

In this paper, the microstructure-based finite element modeling method is used in investigating the loading path dependence of formability of transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steels. For this purpose, the effects of different loading path on the forming limit diagrams (FLD) of TRIP steels are qualitatively examined using the representative volume element (RVE) of a commercial TRIP800 steel. First, the modeling method was introduced, where a combined isotropic/kinematic hardening rule is adopted for the constituent phases in order to correctly describe the cyclic deformation behaviors of TRIP steels during the forming process with combined loading paths which may include the unloading between the two consecutive loadings. Material parameters for the constituent phases remained the same as those in the authors' previous study [ 1 ] except for some adjustments for the martensite phase due to the introduction of the new combined hardening rule.

Accident data show that the head and the chest are the most frequently injured body regions in side impact fatal accidents. Curtain side air bag (CSA) and thorax side air bag (SAB) have been installed by manufacturers for the protection devices for these injuries. In this research, first we studied the recent side impact accident data in Japan and verified that the head and chest continued to be the most frequently injured body regions in fatal accidents. Second, we studied the occupant seating postures in vehicles on the roads, and found from the vehicle's side view that the head location of 56% of the drivers was in line or overlapped with the vehicle's B-pillar. This observation suggests that in side collisions head injuries may occur frequently due to contacts with the B-pillar. Third, we conducted a side impact test series for struck vehicles with and without CSA and SAB.

The adoption of the electronic controlled steering systems with new technologies has been extended in recent years. They have interactions with other complex vehicle subsystems and it is a hard task for the vehicle developer to find the best solution from huge number of the combination of parameter settings with track tests. In order to improve the efficiency of the steering system development, the authors had developed a steering bench test method for steering system using a Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation (HILS). In the steering HILS system, vehicle dynamics simulation and the tie rod axial force calculation are required at the same time in the real-time simulation environment. The accuracy of the tie rod axial force calculation is one of the key factors to reproduce the vehicle driving condition. But the calculation cannot be realized by a commercial software for the vehicle dynamics simulation.

As software (SW) becomes more and more an important aspect of embedded system development, project schedules are requiring the earlier development of software simultaneously with hardware (HW). In addition, verification has increasingly challenged the design of complex mixed-signal SoC products. This is exacerbated for automotive safety critical SoC products with a high number of analogue interfaces (sensors and actuators) to the physical components such as an airbag SoC chipset. Generally, it is widely accepted that verification accounts for around 70% of the total SoC development. Since integration of HW and SW is the most crucial step in embedded system development, the sooner it is done, the sooner verification can begin. As such, any approaches which could allow verification and integration of HW/SW to be deployed earlier in the development process and help to decrease verification effort, (e.g.: accelerate verification runs) are of extreme interest.

Vehicle hood styling has significant influence on headform kinematics in assessment tests of pedestrian impact protection performance. Pedestrian headform kinematics on vehicle front-end models with different hood styling characteristics is analyzed based on finite element modeling. More elevated feature lines near hood boundary and the following continuous hood surface towards fender will result in a different headform motion. It can lead to larger deformation space, more rotation and earlier rebound of the headform impactor, which will benefit the head impact protection performance. In addition, hood geometry characteristics such as hood angle and curvature have effects on structural stiffness. Therefore, inclusion of considerations on pedestrian head protection into the vehicle hood styling design stage may lead to a more effective and efficient engineering design process on headform impact analysis.

The target of the work is to find out the algorithm of definition of the ratios of mechanical part of complex powersplit CVT/IVT system with regard to the highest achievable efficiency. The presented synthesis is focused on powersplit systems, which will consist of a CVT part, differential and eventually by-pass gear. The algorithm will be programmed and become an integral part of the program Sungear developed on Czech Technical University in Prague for analyses and synthesis of planetary stepped transmissions and CVT/IVT powersplit systems. The article will mainly present the algorithm of definition of efficient powersplit system. For the search of the efficient powersplit system we assume that the following parameters are given: a Spread and efficiency of used CVT system. b Total spread of the whole powersplit CVT/IVT mechanism. c Optional: Ratios of the used CVT system. d Optional: Ratios of the whole powersplit CVT/IVT system.

Tie rod end clearance is an important parameter influencing automobile stability under slalom maneuver. In this paper the steering mechanism is simplified into a plane linkage mechanism and an analysis of the effects on vehicle stability exerted by kinematic pair clearance under slalom maneuver is also presented. A 4DOF mathematical model of vehicle maneuvering system is thus being built. On the basis of this model, we adopt the numerical analysis method to conduct a simulated analysis about the stability of prototype vehicle side slip angle as the clearance parameter changes. According to the results, vehicle slalom dynamics behaviors manifest itself in shifting from single cycle to chaos directly. With the increase in clearance, nearly no change is displayed in the upper critical frequency of vehicle slalom instability. However, an increasing rise is shown in the lower critical frequency.

As one of the most important auto-body moving parts, door hinge is the key point of door design and its accessories arrangement, also the premise of the door kinematic analysis. We proposed an effective layout procedure for door hinge and developed an intelligent system on CATIA CAA platform to execute it. One toolbar and five function modules are constructed - Axis Arrangement, Section, Parting Line, Kinematic, Hinge Database. This system integrated geometrical algorithms, automatically calculate the minimum clearances between doors, fender and hinges on sections to judge if the layout is feasible. As the sizes of the clearances are set to 0s, the feasible layout regions and extreme start/end points are shown in parts window, which help the engineer to check the parting line and design a new one. Our system successfully implemented the functions of five modules for the layout of door hinge axis and parting line based on a door hinge database.

Vibration testing is often carried out for automotive components to meet guidelines based on their operational environments. This is an iterative process wherein design changes may need to be made depending on an intermediate model’s dynamic behavior. Predicting the behavior based on modifications in boundary conditions of a well-defined numerical model imparts practical insights to the component’s responses. To this end, application of a general method using experimental free-free condition frequency response functions of a structure is discussed in the presented work. The procedure is shown to be useful for prediction of responses when kinematic boundary conditions are applied, without the need for an actual measurement. This approach is outlined in the paper and is applied to datasets where dynamic modifications are made at multiple boundary nodes.

Driver’s hands modify the vibrational response of the steering wheel, hence car manufacturers are used to measure vibrations of the free steering wheel to ensure reproducibility. However, levels measured in this condition do not represent those perceived by the driver. The aim of this study is to predict the vibrational response of the hand-wheel coupled system from measurements of the non-held steering wheel, and of the mechanical impedance of the arm. The measurement of the biodynamic response (BR) of the hand-arm system has been studied many times in the bibliography and tested according to the position of the arm, the coupling force, the excitation level or the measurement protocol used. These extensive measurements have resulted in the ISO 10 068 standard and mechanical representation such as mass-spring-damper models, also presented in the ISO standard. A wide review of the literature is carried out and the most suitable model for driving is chosen.

Laminar burning velocity is a fundamental measurement describing how a flame propagates into quiescent unburned mixture ahead of the flame at a specified pressure and temperature. Laminar burning velocity of bio-diesel air mixture has been studied in a spherical bomb, using the pressure - time records. Initial pressure, temperature is varied to cover a range from 1 bar - 4 bar and 443K-523K respectively. The range of measurements covered the equivalence ratio from 0.8 to 1.2. Pressure-time records have been used to calculate the flame velocity, burned gas fraction, flame position etc., using a simplified, two zone thermodynamic model, assuming equilibrium composition and homogenous mixture for the burned gases. It is also assumed frozen composition and isentropic compression for the unburned mixture.

The experimental campaign discussed in publication 2019-01-0635 was extended to emulate more vehicle parameters and also to increase severity leading to deployment event. The engine speed (RPM) and Accelerator Pedal Position (APP) were emulated using LabVIEW and added to the previously reported emulated parameters of wheel speeds and brake status. Overlapping non-deployment events were generated and the EDR data is presented enriched with additional (faster) CAN bus data sniffed from the vehicle harness. While the non-deployment events were still generated using the rubber mallet in pendulum configuration as in 2019-01-0635, a series of tests were performed using an Izod pendulum to incrementally increase event severity until deployment event was generated. The Izod pendulum was instrumented with a rotational potentiometer to measure its instantaneous angle while laboratory accelerometers were used to separately measure acceleration.

Modeling of elastohydrodynamic lubrication phenomena for the spiral bevel gears is performed in the present study. The damping and the friction coefficient generated from the lubricated contact area will have profound effects on the dynamics of spiral bevel gears. Thus the damping value generated from this friction model will be time varying. This makes the use of constant and empirical damping value in the dynamics of spiral bevel gears questionable. The input geometric and kinematic data required for the elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) simulations are obtained using Tooth Contact Analysis. A full numerical elastohydrodynamic lubrication simulations are carried out using asymmetric integrated control volume (AICV) algorithm to compute the contact pressures. The fast Fourier transform is used to calculate the elastic deformations on the gear surfaces due to contact load.