Abstract
The collective intercity transportation by bus is currently a mean of locomotion much sought after by people. Security in accidents is a very important factor that must be taken into account in design of bus body structure, being the evaluation of passenger safety of this type of vehicle is an important subject that should be checked, because in many accidents occur disconnection between seats and fastening members causing serious passengers injury, often fatal. This work aims at evaluation the behavior of frame fixing of seats of intercity bus bodies, submitted to the frontal impact situation in a rigid wall of 100% offset, through evaluation by finite element method (FEM). This study uses a numerical model corresponding to the body structure and chassis, developed through flexible beam elements, combining with shell elements for the structure of the seats and its fastening members, with the objective of not missing the essential aspects of the problem, allowing the solution with a reduced computational time. The numerical model of bus body and seat was impacted against a rigid wall at a speed of 8.89 m/s, being its validation according to the deceleration curve established by Regulation 80. Then it was gotten the Von Mises stress in fastening members of the seat structure in bus body. It is also presented a proposal to improve the fastening of the seat structure, comparing the results of the stress gotten in the two types fastening submitted to the frontal impact.
Highlights
The collective intercity transportation in Brazil has been one of the most popular means of locomotion for people today, and the bus, is one of the most used transport options in this category.According to data provided by the latest Statistical Yearbook, from National Agency for Land Transport (ANTT, 2007), in 2007 the number of companies that provide transport by bus in Brazil is 197 companies and bus-type vehicles that travel on the highways are 13907
The new geometric configuration and the increase of thickness of the seat base caused an increase in weight around 55% comparing with the original configuration, representing 0.19% the weight of a bus body with12m in length
In this article was presented a methodology to evaluate the setting of seats of highway buses under condition of frontal impact, checking which attachment points were subject to greater efforts, using the finite element method
Summary
The collective intercity transportation in Brazil has been one of the most popular means of locomotion for people today, and the bus, is one of the most used transport options in this category. The study suggests, based on analysis of accidents, that new structural solutions in the design of the bus should be considered to improve the protection of passengers (Páez et al, 2011). In this context, the manufacturers of buses must comply with current legislation to perform the project. The seat anchoring in the European Community is established by Regulation 80 (1989), applied to all constructed for the transportation of 16 passengers or more (Categories M2 and M3)
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