Citation

Nohr M, Blume KH. Proc. Int. Tech. Conf. Enhanced Safety Vehicles 2009; 2009.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, In public domain, Publisher National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The benefits of pressurized front and side members and door components were evaluated. In general pressurizing is done by gas generators. These components are comparable to state of the art gas generators which are used for airbag applications. Within a few milliseconds the pressure increases up to 20bar. Depending on the initial shape of the structure, pressurizing can force an increase of the cross section and moment of inertia. Various door beam designs have been investigated. Pressure increased the initial cross section by about 200%. Component and vehicle tests were conducted to assess the repeatability of beam deformation, to emphasis benefits and to set up validated simulation tools. Using simulation tools active BIW-structures have been assessed for frontal and side impact scenarios. Having pre-crash triggered crash structures available, an impact on vehicle crash performance, passenger protection and weight reduction is expected. As a long-term goal, emphasized safety assistance systems, as well as internet and car-to-car communication will lead to accident free driving. Nevertheless it is expected that infrastructural countermeasures have to be introduced to support the safety goals. It is expected that the world automotive market could rise from about 800Mio vehicles today to 2Mrd vehicles before 2050. Having no significant safety innovations, which can be applied worldwide, especially to the rapidly growing markets, it is anticipated that road driving fatalities will exceed the 2Mio limit between 2020 and 2030. In addition a multiplier of about 80 between fatal and injured road users is predicted. New propulsion and modified vehicle concepts are necessary to achieve confirmed fine dust pollution and greenhouse gas concentration levels. For all vehicle concepts and propulsion systems there is a strong demand to optimize and reduce weight, not only for the BIW, but also for all other disciplines like power train, chassis, and interior. Pressurized structural components seem to be a technology which can help to apply safety improvements and establish packaging and design freedoms without adding weight. To transfer the technology to commercial applications a few challenges have to be solved. Knowing, that the maximum benefits will be achieved for pre-crash applications, front and lateral sensing has to be established, which allows to introduce pre-triggered, pyrotechnical based safety devices, without additional in-crash signal confirmation. In addition optimized jointing, handling and assembly concepts have to be developed and established. From the suppliers there is a strong need to come up with cost and weight reductions for gas generators or other deployment devices.