Citation

Sinz W, Breitfuß C, Tomasch E, Gugler J, Feist F, Lacher H, Conte FV, Kutsenits S, Kieninger E. Int. J. Crashworthiness 2011; 17(1): 105-118.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13588265.2011.633420

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper focuses on a novel concept for a fully electric city bus and the crashworthy integration of a changeable battery system. The changeable battery had to be located in an accessible and safe position. By careful analysis, an acceptable battery location was found under the floor of the vehicle. Due to the absence of design drawings of the real bus, an existing finite element model of a full size van was taken as a substitute. This model has less weight than the actual bus. Therefore, the battery was downsized based on range calculations. All parts of the vehicle concerning the combustion engine were removed and the battery was implemented in the model. This vehicle model was tested virtually using different crash load cases to demonstrate the feasibility of a crashworthy integration. Additional testing was carried out to evaluate the stability of the real bus lithium-ion cells under crash conditions.