Citation

Scattina A, Belingardi G. Int. J. Crashworthiness 2015; 20(2): 142-150.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13588265.2014.984388

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The key points in the automotive design nowadays are safety and reduction of pollutant emissions. In particular, regarding the safety, the attention is focused on the protection of vulnerable road users, pedestrians and cyclists. Concerning the pollutant emissions, one of the main targets is weight reduction of the vehicles in order to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions. In this frame, in this work, an innovative solution for a bonnet of a medium-sized car is proposed and developed. This solution is characterised by an inner structure with a specific net design which allows to increase the absorption of energy in case of impact against the pedestrian head. The developed solution is finally designed by means of finite element (FE) simulations and optimisation processes. To evaluate the safety performance, also the rotational accelerations of the pedestrian head have been taken into consideration. The final developed solutions allow us to obtain consistent reductions in terms of structure's weight and risk of injuries to the pedestrian head.