Finite Element Analysis of a Radio Mounting Clip Under Rear Crash Loading Environment 2004-28-0049

Finite element analysis (FEA) plays an important role in assessing the crashworthiness of support structures for electronic components in an automobile. In the event of a crash, the safety of front seated passengers may be compromised by components mounted in the interior panel. In this paper, a radio mounting clip design is evaluated under rear crash load at 50 kmph velocity using FEA. A simplified approach to analyze crash situations of component mountings inside an automobile is outlined. A full-section collapse nonlinear elastic-plastic analysis is performed to estimate force to failure. Various design alternatives for the clip to meet a required rear crash load are discussed. The FEA results are compared with experiments and analytical calculations, and fairly good correlation is observed.