Design and analysis of a polyamide-steel hybrid A-pillar for increased vehicle roof structural integrity in rollover accident scenarios

摘要

In a world where motor vehicles are the primary means of personal transportation, accidents have become common. One of the accident modes of note are rollover accidents which in most instances deals with the roof crush scenario. In roof crush, the A-pillar structures would have failed to a certain degree if not completely. In this research ways to strengthen the roof structure, in particular the A-pillar structure are sought through the application of Polymer-Metal Hybrid materials to the A-pillar design. The Polymer-Metal Hybrid Material is designed from material selection to configuration optimisation using design parameters derived from rollover accident scenario information as well as vehicle Body-in-White manufacturing processes. The hybrid material designed was constituted of directly bonded 43% glass filled polyamide 6/6 and dual phase 980 High Strength Steel. Analyses on the application of the design material and effectiveness of its optimised configuration are carried out through non-linear stress analysis simulations and Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm optimisation techniques. Results point to the assertion that application of the hybrid material design can attain up to a 15% weight saving and attains with marginal stiffness performance gains. However, the strength performance of the hybrid material design shows that the design excels in withstanding forces stresses greater than the All-steel member by an order of nearly 2.