Michael Schäffer

Methodological development from vehicle concept to modular body structure for the DLR NGC-Urban Modular Vehicle

Three new vehicle concepts in the field of transport are being developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as part of the Next Generation Car META-project: Urban Modular Vehicle, Safe Light Regional Vehicle and Interurban Vehicle. In the submitted contribution, the focus lies on the development and application of a method for determining the vehicle concept and body in white construction for the Urban Modular Vehicle.

Methodological Approach for Reducing Computational Costs of Vehicle Frontal Crashworthiness Analysis by Using Simplified Structural Modelling

ABSTRACT A challenge in the design and optimisation of the vehicle front structures is the high computational costs required for crash analysis. A methodological approach to simplifying finite element vehicle models and crash barriers is presented in this paper. The methodology uses global deformation characteristics of structures which are obtained from the global crash model. For the simplification of the vehicle crash model, structural regions which sustain only elastic deformations during the frontal crash are replaced by kinematic numerical representations which describe both stiffness and load paths at the interface of the substituted structures. Verification studies of the simplified vehicle model show a very good agreement of the global and local structural response during the frontal crash. Further simplifications were applied to the offset deformable barrier by replacing its detailed crushing behaviour by kinematic descriptions. Through the combined use of both simplified numerical representations, the computational cost of a Euro new car assessment program (NCAP) offset crash analysis can be reduced by around 92%. With the obtained time reduction, structural optimisation studies of the remaining structure can be conducted efficiently for the identification of weight reduction potentials.

Projekt Next Generation Car

Am Institut fur Fahrzeugkonzepte des DLR wird an Masnahmen zur Massereduzierung durch die Anpassung von Optimierungsstrategien an die jeweilige Bauweise und deren wesentlichen Bauteilanforderungen gearbeitet. Anhand einer ausgewahlten Optimierungsstrategie werden an einer Schwellerstruktur sowohl die spezifische Energieabsorption als auch die Intrusion in den Fahrgastraum verbessert.