EVALUACIÓN DE NUEVOS DISEÑOS DE BARRA DE PROTECCIÓN LATERAL EN PUERTA DE AUTOMÓVIL UTILIZANDO EL M.E.F.

Abstract

The present paper assesses the mechanical behavior of new designs of side protection beams in the front door of a passenger car. The analysis was performed according to the quasi-static door crush resistance test described in FMVSS 214 standard. This test is effective for analyzing the side protection beam in impact situations against fixed objects and supposes a preliminary step in order to verify the side protection level of new beam designs. The project’s objective was to achieve weight reduction in the component as well as improving its mechanical behavior in side impacts, by means of increasing the energy absorption level during the deformation process. Parting from a detailed finite element model of a passenger car, the quasi-static deformation test over the car’s front door has been simulated using the software Ls-Dyna. Then, the original design of side protection beam was substituted for new beam designs which included different geometries and materials. In a first stage two new designs in high strength steel were analysed. In a second stage these designs were filled with a foam material and the obtained results were compared with the former ones.