Evaluation of Rectangular Front Load Beam for Energy Absorption

Frontal impact is still a major concern for automotive OEMs. The energy absorption of the front rail plays an important role in frontal impact. The S-rails are used in the front load beam and mostly front portion of the load beams is a rectangular section. In this paper rectangular column (load beam) with different parameters i. e. different rib (inside) thickness and materials, are evaluated using Finite Element Analysis. The front load beam comes under direct load path in Full frontal and ODB (Offset deformable barrier) impact. The acceleration pulse at the passenger cabin is affected by the design of rails. Good design leads to a reduction of occupant injury. The intrusion of the opposite vehicle is more in case of ODB and the acceleration pulse is in case of full frontal impacts. The front load beam (rail) works as a source of energy absorber between the bumper and the engine in both the cases. It prevents engine to hit the cabin to reduce the occupant injury. In this paper is impact speed of 50 km/h under dynamic conditions used to evaluate the rectangular column (load beam), a new design is proposed, which will provide a direction to the designers.