Simulation of a Car Frontal Offset Impact Into a Fixed Deformable Barrier 962485

This paper presents results from an analytical simulation to evaluate the crashworthiness of the Ford Taurus automobile in a frontal offset collision into the fixed European Experimental Vehicles Committee deformable barrier. A finite element model of this carrier was developed for the simulation studies, and merged with an existing finite element model of the Taurus automobile. A frontal impact with 40% offset was simulated at 40 mph using the nonlinear explicit finite element code LS-DYNA3D. Modeling of the barrier is discussed, and results from the simulation are compared to actual crash test data. Overall, the simulation response matched the test response relatively well. Some deviations between the simulation and test occurred in the vehicle time response and intrusion measurements and are attributed to restriction to a practical computation time to perform the simulation, and the Taurus finite element model being too stiff.