Abstract

Nowadays, occupant safety becomes one of the most important research
area and the automotive industry increased their efforts for enhancing the
safety of the vehicles. The aim of this research is to investigate the effect of
vehicle dynamics control systems (VDCS) on both the collision of the vehicle
body and the kinematics behaviour of the vehicle’s occupant. In this work, a
novel vehicle dynamics/crash mathematical model is proposed and
developed to co-simulate the crash event with the VDCS. This model is
achieved using the novel approach of integrating front-end structure and
vehicle dynamics mathematical models. The proposed mathematical model
integrates both anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and active suspension
control (ASC) systems alongside with crash structure modelling. This model
is developed by generating its equations of motion and solving them
numerically, this approach is used due to its quick and accurate analysis. In
addition, a new multi-body occupant mathematical model is developed to
capture the occupant kinematics before and during the collision.
Validations of the proposed mathematical models are achieved to ensure
their accuracy by comparing the simulated results with other real crash test
data and former models results. The validation analysis of the vehicle and
occupant models shows that the comparison results are well matched and
the models are valid and can be used for different crash scenarios.
The numerical simulation results are divided into two parts for vehicle and
occupant models, respectively. Related to the vehicle model, it is shown that
the mathematical model is flexible and useful for optimization studies. The
results show that the deformation of the front-end structure is reduced, the
vehicle body pitching and yawing angles are notably reduced, and the
vehicle pitching acceleration is greatly reduced. Related to the occupant
model, it is shown that the VDCS does have a significant effect on the
rotations of the occupant's chest and head owing to its effect on the vehicle
pitching. In addition, the occupant's deceleration is also slightly decreased
and the occupant safety is improved.