Abstract
This article collects the development of a frontal composite structure for electric light vehicles (concretely within L7e European category), which has been required to fulfil energy absorption capabilities for pedestrian protection. An initial design made of a composite sandwich structure (glass fibre skins with polyvinyl chloride foam core) was proposed and a prototype was manufactured and tested against impact. Then, a numerical model was created and the impact test was simulated by the finite element method. After adjusting the numerical model to the real performance of the component, the initial material configuration of the sandwich composite was optimized according to design objectives involving safety, current regulations and repairability.
Highlights
Since 1970s, experimental, numerical and field data analyses have shown the relevance of vehicle design on pedestrian injuries
The Global Technical Regulation No 9 from the United Nations ‘Pedestrian Safety’ collects the test procedures for assessing the pedestrian frontal protection in current light vehicles such as passenger cars, sport utility vehicles (SUV), light trucks and other light commercial vehicles; their application to heavy vehicles or to very small and light vehicles could be of limited value and may not be technically appropriate.[2]
The research described in this article is focussed on the design and optimization of a frontal structure for electric vehicles which must be able to perform friendly with vulnerable road users (VRUs) in case of accident
Summary
Since 1970s, experimental, numerical and field data analyses have shown the relevance of vehicle design on pedestrian injuries. The Global Technical Regulation No 9 from the United Nations ‘Pedestrian Safety’ collects the test procedures for assessing the pedestrian frontal protection in current light vehicles such as passenger cars, sport utility vehicles (SUV), light trucks and other light commercial vehicles; their application to heavy vehicles or to very small and light vehicles could be of limited value and may not be technically appropriate.[2] In this respect, the APROSYS European project[3,4] provided solutions and gave design recommendations for reducing the severity of injuries of vulnerable road users (VRUs) in head-on collisions against heavy vehicles and passenger cars. The fast evolution, that electric vehicles are experiencing nowadays, makes necessary to develop new approaches to guarantee or even optimize pedestrian passive safety in new designs
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