Occupant Safety Simulation

Occupant Safety Simulation

Occupant and pedestrian safety are critical design aspects. These aspects determine whether a vehicle can be homologated. Therefore thorough prototype testing needs to be done before a vehicle can go to market. However, this testing is expensive and can cause significant delays, especially when problems are discovered. For this reason, vehicle manufacturers try to save prototyping time and cost by doing upfront research and analysis using simulation.

Yet occupant safety simulations can be computationally intensive, especially for long-duration events. With the advent of driverless vehicles, new seating positions and restraints systems are on the increase; compliance in terms of population gender, age, and size is becoming more critical. As a result, the number of relevant testing scenarios (or load cases) keeps on increasing. Therefore engineers need to carefully balance between accuracy, model size and calculation time. They need solutions where they can pick the right method for their problems. When using Simcenter Madymo, engineers can apply a variety of simulation techniques, and find a set of validated crash dummy models and human body models in a database. Simcenter Madymo uniquely combines the capabilities of multibody (MB), finite element (FE), and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in a single CAE solver. This will allow engineers to do all their calculations at a scale that fits the application.

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Simulate Out-of-Position events for deploying airbags, where injuries can result from contact between the occupant and the airbag. By using the Simcenter Madymo’s computational fluid dynamics (CFD) module, engineers can carry out detailed modeling of the flow of fluids, such as gas flowing inside the deploying airbag.

Coupling FE Codes

Couple Simcenter Madymo with other FE codes for safety design or connect with Matlab to include control algorithms and study their effects on the restraint system. Today, Simcenter Madymo can be coupled to LS-DYNA, PAM-CRASH, RADIOSS, and ABAQUS. This enables engineers to continue using Simcenter Madymo crash test dummies, which to date remain the fastest and most accurate dummy models available, while in their preferred FE code. The combined result can then be visualized and post-processed in a single graphical tool.

Finite Element Analysis

Accurately model deformable structures inside the occupant compartment, such as seatbelt, airbag, seat, and trim. Simcenter Madymo’s explicit transient finite element (FE) solver includes an extensive selection of element definitions, material models, and contact algorithms, dedicated for this application.