A Study on Side Impact from Car-to-Car using Finite Element Analysis

The deformed degree of car body varies largely with the collision part from side collision of car-to-car. In case of deformation of car body caused by collision, the movement is different as speed energy changes to strain energy. Generally, in the analysis of traffic accident, the movement of car after the collision is analyzed by law of conservation of motion and the error of energy absorption rate along the deformation of car body can be calibrated by inputting coefficient of restitution, but it is current situation that coefficient of restitution applied by referring to the research results of forward collision and backward collision because the research results of side collision is rare. Vehicle model of finite element method applied by structure of car body and materials of each component was analyzed by explicit finite element method, and coefficient of restitution and collision detection time along contact part of side collision was drawn by analyzing the results. Analysis result acquired through the law of conservation momentum by applying finally-computed coefficient of restitution and crash detection time compared to collision result of actual vehicle. As a result, the reliability of analysis was higher than the existing analysis method were acquired when applying the drawn initial input value that used finite element method analysis model.