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Vehicle pitch and drop play an important role for occupant neck and head injury at frontal impact. The excessive vehicle header drop, due to vehicle pitch and drop during crash, induces aggressive interaction between occupant head and sun visor/header that causes serious head and neck injuries. For most of body-on-frame vehicles, vehicle pitch and drop have commonly been observed at frontal impact tests. It is because the vehicle body is pulled downward by frame rails, which bend down during crash. Hence, the challenges of frame design are not only to absorb crash energy but also to manage frame deformation for minimizing vehicle pitch and drop. In this paper, the finite element method is used to analyze frame deformation at full frontal impact. To ensure the quality of CAE model, a full vehicle FEA model is correlated to barrier tests. In addition, a study of CAE modeling affecting vehicle header drop is performed.

The present investigation details an experimental procedure for frontal impact responses of a generic steel front bumper crush can (FBCC) assembly subjected to a rigid full and 40% offset impact. There is a paucity of studies focusing on component level tests with FBCCs, and of those, speeds carried out are of slower velocities. Predominant studies in literature pertain to full vehicle testing. Component level studies have importance as vehicles aim to decrease weight. As materials, such as carbon fiber or aluminum, are applied to vehicle structures, computer aided models are required to evaluate performance. A novel component level test procedure is valuable to aid in CAE correlation. All the tests were conducted using a sled-on-sled testing method. Several high-speed cameras, an IR (Infrared) thermal camera, and a number of accelerometers were utilized to study impact performance of the FBCC samples.

The Multi Material Lightweight Vehicle (MMLV) developed by Magna International and Ford Motor Company is a result of a US Department of Energy (DOE) project DE-EE0005574. The project demonstrates the lightweighting potential of a five passenger sedan, while achieving frontal crash test performance comparable to the baseline vehicle. Prototype vehicles were manufactured and limited full vehicle testing was conducted. The Mach-I vehicle design, comprised of commercially available materials and production processes, achieved a 364 kg (23.5%) full vehicle mass reduction, enabling the application of a 1.0 liter three-cylinder engine, leading to the potential for reduced environmental impact and improved fuel economy.

This study summarizes the latest development of the methodologies for testing and CAE modeling of the engine mount. A systematic approach is used in this study with detailed component, subsystem and full system level investigations. The component level study reveals the entangling phenomenon of the inertial and rate effects in the engine mount dynamic characteristics. In the subsystem, the interaction between the engine mount and its surrounding structure is explored. The full system study is primarily used to validate the CAE methodology for engine mounts developed in the component and subsystem level studies. Four full vehicle barrier crash tests, with different crash modes and speeds, are employed in this validation phase to evaluate the performance of the engine mount CAE methodology.