PREDICTING THE LIMITING PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMOBILE STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS UNDER CRASH CONDITIONS

The document is the final report of an investigation for determining the optimum performance characteristics of automobiles under collision circumstances. A new technique called limiting performance was used for this purpose. The first goal was to establish the feasibility of applying the limiting performance technique to the crash simulation of automobiles. Subsequent work demonstrated the utility of the new technique for the design of automobiles for crash passenger protection. Detailed results of the study are discussed. The report includes the computer programs REFORM and NLPERFORM.