Methodology for design of the seat as a restraint system 2001-06-0207

This study is the result of 2 years of work between the Renault safety department and the Faurecia R&D department. The paper is based on 5 different items aimed at developing improved occupant safety and controlling development of the safety components:

- Definition of different crash configurations and the associated biomechanical criteria by the car manufacturer.

- Definition of functional specifications (geometry and stiffness for each component) using global simulations. This is the starting point for discussions between the car manufacturer and the suppliers. Comparison of the specifications to the state of the art gives the first orientations for future developments.

- An exchange of simulation data to allow overall simulations as early as possible by the supplier's simulation department: Each component can be represented by springs or contact interfaces in the different calculation programs. This simplifies the simulation without the need to exchange information on supplier expertise or technical solutions.

- Definition of common numerical tools and specific outputs: The supplier's global simulation method is compared to Renault's and an objective result is obtained. The performance of each component in the global configuration has to be evaluated with special outputs called force balance.

- Creation by the supplier of a technical solutions database to reduce development times for new projects.