Using a Parametric Method for Investigating Automotive Crashworthiness

Parametric design optimization is presented for the crashworthiness improvement of an automotive body. The thickness of principle internal parts of the automotive frontal crumple zone was employed as design variables for optimization. The objective was to improve automotive crashworthiness conditions according to the defined criterion during a full frontal impact. Using the Taguchi method, this study analyzed the optimum conditions for design objectives. The impact factors and their optimal levels were obtained by analyzing the experimental results. A full frontal impact was implemented for simulating crashworthiness in the nonlinear dynamic code, LS-DYNA.The controllable factors used in this study consisted of six internal parts of the vehicle’s frontal structure in a condition that their thickness was the “design parameter". Interestingly, the optimum conditions for automotive crashworthiness occurred with 14% improvement in the performance criterion in comparison with the baseline design while several parts experienced mass reduction.