Summer Project Title Submission

Analysis of Crash Box Influence on Crashworthiness

Using Ansys Explicit STR
Abhishek Verma,
Department of Industrial Design, NIT Rourkela,

Introduction
Crash absorbing materials are being used in industry to reduce impact of collision on
worthy structure often referred as crashworthy, as they could sustain crash up to a
certain limit without causing any damage to the integrity of structure as a whole. In
automobile industry crashworthy structure absorbs impact energy in a controlled
manner. The sudden impact of collision cause huge amount of impulse and deceleration.
Energy absorption by using metallic absorber is achieved by progressive buckling using
folding deformation using initiators such as ribs, holes, folds, cuts, different shapes of
sections, elements with variable thickness and constant increase of sections and of
inertia moments. The key feature of these crash boxes is that deformation that rate of
energy dissipation is concentrated over relatively narrow zones and other part of
structure undergoes rigid body motion.

Justification for Project Title

Crash worthiness of an automotive is not an additional feature in a product anymore,
according to the guidelines issued by government it is a compulsory norm which must
be fulfilled that a vehicle should sustain impact up to certain level before catastrophic
failure. Now a days customer also prefer safety over price that is why we see new safety
features associated with a car like safety air bags. A crash worthy car from
manufacturers point of view should be economically and technically feasible to
manufacture. Use of crash box in a car front seems to be economical as there is no
significant manufacturing process is required for production. It protects the structural
integrity of vehicle up to a certain impact.

Problem Statement
Selection of material and geometry of crash box and implementing it on frame rail
attached to a rigid bumper. Using Ansys Explicit STR and comparing stress variation of
different models with and without crash box.

Fig.1: three different configurations (M1 without crash box, M2 and M3 with different
combinations.) [1]

Fig 2: Comparison of stress variations of geometric models during the impact

simulation [1]

Future Work: (Design of crash box using LS-OPT and Explicit

simulation of crash box on LS DYNA)
It is useful to utilize mathematical optimization by altering the geometry and the
material and structural properties of the bumper- beam and crash box to improve the
low/high speed performance. LS-OPT is a tool which is being used for geometrical
modeling of crash box. LS-OPT is associated with LS DYNA a software which is used to
solve explicit problems and simulations. LS OPT uses artificial neural control method to
predict optimum design of various models. Deigning of crash box from scratch will
require huge computing ability and computational time in weeks or may be months and
keeping in mind resources available in our department it is impossible to consider it for
summer project.

Project Timeline starting from May 1st 2016

Time
(weeks)
Work
Literature
review
Design of
crash box
Design of
Explicit
Environmen
t
Simulation

Analysis of
result

Report
Writing

References
[1] Mihail Daniel Iozsa, Dan Alexandru Micu, Gheorghe Fratila, Florincristian
Antonache, Influence of Crash Box on Automotive Crashworthiness, Recent Advances in
Civil Engineering and Mechanics, ISBN: 978-960-474-403-9;
[2] Redhe, M., Nilsson, L., Bergman, F., Stander, N., Shape Optimization of Vehicle
Crash-box using LS-OPT, 5th European LS-DYNA Users Conference, Birmingham,
2005;
[3] 'Crashworthiness Investigation and Optimization of Empty and Foam Filled
Composite Crash Box', Hamidreza Zarei, Aeronautical University, Tehran , Matthias
Kroeger, University of Technology ,Iran;
[4] Micu, D.A., Straface, D., Farkas, L., Erdelyi, H., Iozsa, M.D., Mundo, D., Donders, S.,
A cosimulation approach for crash analysis, UPB Scientific Bulletin, Series D:
Mechanical Engineering, 76 (2), 2014, pp. 189-198;
[5] Srbu, A.D.M., Research on improving crashworthiness of the frontal part of the
automotive structure, PhD Thesis, Politechnica University of Bucharest, Romania, 2012;
[6] Hamidreza Zarei, Matthias Kroger, Institute of Dynamics and Vibrations, University
of Hannover, Germany, Optimum honeycomb filled crash absorber design, Materials
and Design 29 (2008) 193204;
[7] Hamidreza Zarei, Matthias Kroger, Henrik Albertsen, Institute of Dynamics and
Vibrations, Germany, An experimental and numerical crashworthiness investigation
of thermoplastic composite crash boxes, Composite Structures 85 (2008) 245257;
[8] H R Zarei & M Krger, Crashworthiness optimization of empty and filled
aluminum crash boxes, International Journal of Crashworthiness;
[9] Gangadhar Biradar, Anjan Babu V.A, Automotive Crash Box Performance Analysis
and Simulation during Frontal Rigid Barrier Crash, International Journal of Science
and Research (IJSR),
[10] Shokri EL Houssini, Daan Engineering, s.n.c , Front Bumper Crash Worthiness
Optimization, 9th International LS-DYNA Users Conference