Theory and application of finite element analysis to structural crash simulation

Abstract An increasing emphasis is currently being placed on the crashworthy design of occupant-carrying vehicles. The goal of this effort is to design vehicles that can minimize the dynamic forces experienced by occupants during a crash event while at the same time maintaining them in a survivable structural envelope. To accomplish this goal it is necessary to evaluate the dynamic crush behavior of the vehicle structure in specific crash situations. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the computational aspects of this problem. This is accomplished by outlining the computational methods used for crash simulation, discussing the requirements of a finite element solution to the problem and then summarizing results of two large structural crash simulation problems.

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