Improved design of the main energy-absorbing automotive parts based on traffic accident analysis

In a traffic accident, a commercial vehicle in the developing stage crashed against a wall due to the faulty operation of the driver. According to the result of the analysis, the speed of the vehicle was 50 km/h at the moment of contact, and the angle between the tire mark and the wall was 17°. In the accident, it was found that the hinge of the engine hood went fractured. The limitation of the design was also shown in the simulation result and the real crash tests of the standard test that forced the vehicle to crash against the rigid wall at the speed of 50 km/h. To solve the problem, the design of the outer and the inner panel was modified on the one hand, and the high strength steel was applied on fourteen energy-absorbing parts on the otherhand. The simulation result showed that the new design could greatly improve the crashworthiness of the vehicle, and provided a solution to the hinge problem as well.