EFFECTIVE REINFORCEMENT OF S-SHAPED FRONT FRAME WITH A CLOSED-HAT SECTION MEMBER FOR FRONTAL IMPACT USING HOMOGENIZATION METHOD

摘要

The frontal crash optimization of S-shaped closed-hat section member using the homogenization method, design of experiment (DOE) and response surface method (RSM) was studied. The optimization to effectively absorb more crash energy was studied to introduce the reinforcement design. The main focus of design was to decide the optimum size and thickness of reinforcement. In this study, the location of reinforcement was decided by homogenization method. Also, the effective size and thickness of reinforcements was studied by design of experiments and response surface method. The effects of various impact velocity for reinforcement design were researched. The high impact velocity reinforcement design showed to absorb the more crash energy than low velocities design. The effect of size and thickness of reinforcement was studied and the sensitivity of size and thickness was different according to base thickness of model. The optimum size and thickness of the reinforcement has shown a direct proportion to the thickness of base model. Also, the thicker the base model was, the effect of optimization using reinforcement was the bigger. The trend curve for effective size and thickness of reinforcement using response surface method was obtained. The predicted size and thickness of reinforcement by RSM were compared with results of DOE. The results of a specific dynamic mean crushing loads for the predicted design by RSM were shown the small difference with the predicted results by RSM and DOE. These trend curves can be used as a basic guideline to find the optimum reinforcement design for S-shaped member.