DESIGN OF VEHICLE BODY FOR SAFETY:

The safety of a vehicle and its passengers can be improved by properly designing and selecting
the material for vehicle bodies. The vehicle body structure is subjected to static and dynamic
service loads during the life cycle. It also has to maintain its integrity and provide adequate
protection in survivable crashes. At present there are two designs of vehicle body
constructions: 1. Body over frame structure and 2. Uni body structure.

Necessary features of a safe vehicle body:

1. Deformable yet stiff front structure with crumble zones to absorb the crash kinetic
energy from frontal collisions
2. Deformable rear structure to safeguard rear passenger compartment and protect the
fuel tank
3. Properly designed side structures and doors to minimize intrusion in side impact and
prevent doors from opening due to crash loads
4. Strong roof structure for rollover protection
5. Properly designed restraint systems with working in harmony with the vehicle structure
6. Accommodate various chassis designs for different power train locations and drivetrain
configurations.The following design techniques/strategies are to be followed while
designing a car body (especially frontstructure) to reduce the impact of crash and
increase the safety of the car and passengers:

1.Desired dummy performance:

Dummy is a physical model representing humans inside a car. To model a car for safety, it
shouldbe modeled for proper crash energy management. As the human beings are to be
safeguarded, the interactionof the human beings with the restraint system during a crash has
to be studied first. This branch of study iswidely known as bio-mechanics. The reaction of a
human being for a crash pulse has to defined and studied indepth. The following steps are
involved in this procedure:
1. Defining the crash pulse signatures
for a specific injury criteria
2. Deriving vehicle design criteria
from the crash pulse data
3. Translating the vehicle design
criteria into spring and mass element
models
4. Identifying crush zones and
determining safer crush distance and
crash force amplitude
5. Conducting parametric analysis to
find other design alternatives.
2.Stiff cage structural concept:
Stiff cage is the passenger compartment structure which provides protection for the
passengers in all modes of survivable collisions. The necessary features of a good stiff cage
structure are: 1. Sufficient peak load capacity to support the energy absorbing members in
front of it, 2. High crash energy absorption. The stiff cage structure should withstand all the
extreme loads and the severe deformation. The following picture shows the design methodology
for stiff cage structural concept:

3. Controlled progressive crush and deformation with limited intrusion:

To make the impact of crash less, the crush event has to be controlled and the deformation
should be made such that the intrusion of other components into the passenger compartment is
less. Axial mode of crush is preferred to bending mode of crush as bending mode has lower
energy content. To achieve this objective three different crush zones are identified:
1. Soft front zone: Reduces the aggressivity of crash in pedestrian / vehicle and vehicle /
vehicle collisions
2. Primary crush zone: It consists of the main energy absorbing structure before the power
train. It is characterized by a relatively uniform progressive structural collapse.
3. Secondary crush zone: Lies between the primary zone and passenger compartment and
sometimes extends into the passenger compartment up to firewall. It provides a stable
platform for the primary zone and transfers the load to the occupant compartment as
efficiently as possible.

4. Weight efficient energy absorbing structures:

The architecture of the structural frame (structural topology) design depends on the ability to
design the primary crush zone for bending, folding, mixed folding and bending. For a given
vehicle package different topologies have to be studied for the same crush energy absorption.
The steps followed are:
1. Create a simple model of vehicle front end systems
2. Determine the design loads of structural members.

Crumble Zone:
The crumple zone of an automobile is a structural feature designed to compress during an
accident to absorb energy from the impact. Typically, crumple zones are located in the front
part of the vehicle, in order to absorb the impact of a head-on collision, though they may be
found on other parts of the vehicle as well. Some racing cars use aluminum or composite
honeycomb to form an 'impact attenuator' for this purpose.
It was an inventor Bela Barenyi who pioneered the idea that passengers were safer in a vehicle
that was designed to easily absorb the energy from an impact and keep that energy away
from the people inside the cabin. Barenyi devised a system of placing the car's components in a
certain configuration that kept the kinetic energy in the event of a crash away from a bubble
protecting the car's occupants. Mercedes obtained a patent from Barenyi's invention way back
in 1952 and the technology was first introduced into production cars in 1959 in the Mercedes-
Benz 220, 220 S and 220 SE models.

Function
Crumple zones work by managing crash energy, absorbing it within the outer sections of
the vehicle, rather than being directly transmitted to the occupants, while also preventing
intrusion into or deformation of the passenger cabin. This better protects car occupants
against injury. This is achieved by controlled weakening of sacrificial outer parts of the car,
while strengthening and increasing the rigidity of the inner part of the body of the car, making
the passenger cabin into a 'safety cell', by using more reinforcing beams and higher strength
steels. Volvo introduced the side crumple zone, with the introduction of the SIPS (Side Impact
Protection System) in the early 1990s.The purpose of crumple zones is to slow down the
collision and to absorb energy. It is like the difference between slamming someone into a wall
headfirst (fracturing their skull) and shoulder-first (bruising their flesh slightly) is that the
arm, being softer, has tens of times longer to slow its speed, yielding a little at a time, than the
hard skull, which isn't in contact with the wall until it has to deal with extremely high pressures.
Seatbelts restrain the passenger so they don't fly through the windshield, and are in the
correct position for the airbag and also spread the loading of impact on the body. Seat belts
also absorb energy by being designed to stretch during an impact, so that there is less speed
differential between the passenger's body and their vehicle interior. In short: A passenger
whose body is decelerated more slowly due to the crumple zone (and other devices) over a
longer time, survives much more often than a passenger whose body indirectly impacts a hard,
undamaged metal car body which has come to a halt nearly instantaneously. The final impact
after a passenger's body hits the car interior, airbag or seat belts, is that of the internal
organs hitting the ribcage or skull. The force of this impact is the mechanism through which car
crashes cause disabling or life threatening injury. The sequence of energy dissipating and speed
reducing technologies - crumple zone - seat belt - airbags - padded interior, are designed to
work together as a system, to reduce the force of this final impact. A common misconception
about crumple zones is that they reduce safety by allowing the vehicle's body to collapse,
crushing the occupants. In fact, crumple zones are typically located in front and behind of the
main body (though side impact absorption systems are starting to be introduced), of the car
(which forms a rigid 'safety cell'), compacting within the space of the engine compartment or
boot/trunk. The marked improvement over the past two decades in high speed crash test
results and real-life accidents also belies any such fears. Modern vehicles using what are
commonly termed 'crumple zones' provide far superior protection for their occupants in severe
tests than older models, or SUVs that use a separate chassis frame and have no crumple zones.
Overall safety
can be
classified as
given below:

Driving safety
It is the result
of a harmonious
chassis and
suspension
design with
regard to wheel
suspension,
springing,
steering and
braking, and is reflected in optimum dynamic vehicle behavior.

Conditional safety
It results from keeping the physiological stress that the vehicle occupants are subjected to by
vibration, noise, and climatic conditions down to as low a level as possible. It is a significant
factor in reducing the possibility of misactions in traffic. Vibrations within a frequency range of
1 to 25 Hz (stuttering, shaking, etc.) induced by wheels and drive components reach the
occupants of the vehicle via the body, seats and steering wheel. The effect of these vibrations
is more or less pronounced, depending upon their direction, amplitude and duration. Noises as
acoustical disturbances in and around the vehicle can come from internal sources (engine,
transmission, prop shafts, axles) or external sources (tire/road noises, wind noises), and are
transmitted through the air or the vehicle body. The sound pressure level is measured in dB(A)
(see Motor-vehicle noise measurements and limits).Noise reduction measures are concerned on
the one hand with the development of quiet-running components and the insulation of noise
sources (e.g., engine encapsulation), and on the other hand with noise damping by means of
insulating or anti-noise materials. Climatic conditions inside the vehicle are primarily influenced
by air temperature, air humidity, rate of airflow through the passenger compartment and air
pressure (see Environmental stresses for additional information).

Perceptibility safety
Measures which increase perceptibility safety are concentrated on:
1. Lighting equipment (see Lighting),
2. Acoustic warning devices (see Acoustic signaling devices),
3. Direct and indirect view (see Main dimensions) (Driver's view: The angle of obscuration
caused by the A-pillars for both of the driver's eyes binocular must not be more than
6 degrees).
Operating safety
Low driver stress, and thus a high degree of driving safety, requires optimum design of the
driver's surroundings with regard to ease of operation of the vehicle controls.

Passive safety

Exterior safety
The term "exterior safety" covers all vehicle-related measures which are designed to minimize
the severity of injury to pedestrians and bicycle and motorcycle riders struck by the vehicle in
an accident. Those factors which determine exterior safety are:
1. Vehicle-body deformation behavior,
2. Exterior vehicle-body shape.

The primary objective is to design the vehicle such that its exterior design minimizes the
consequences of a primary collision (a collision involving persons outside the vehicle and the
vehicle itself).The most severe injuries are sustained by passengers who are hit by the front of
the vehicle, whereby the course of the accident greatly depends upon body size. The
consequences of collisions involving two-wheeled vehicles and passenger cars can only be slightly
ameliorated by passenger-car design due to the two-wheeled vehicle's often considerable
inherent energy component, its high seat position and the wide dispersion of contact points.
Those design features which can be incorporated into the passenger car are, for example:
1. Movable front lamps,
2. Recessed windshields wipers,
3. Recessed drip rails,
4. Recessed door handles.

Interior safety
The term "interior safety" covers vehicle measures whose purpose is to minimize the
accelerations and forces acting on the vehicle occupants in the event of an accident, to provide
sufficient survival space, and to ensure the operability of those vehicle components critical to
the removal of passengers from the vehicle after the accident has occurred. The determining
factors for passenger safety are:
1. Deformation behavior (vehicle body),
2. Passenger-compartment strength, size of the survival space during and after impact,
3. Restraint systems,
4. Impact areas (vehicle interior), (FMVSS 201),
5. Steering system,
6. Occupant extrication,
7. Fire protection.
Laws which regulate interior safety (frontal impact) are:
1. Protection of vehicle occupants in the event of an accident, in particular restraint
systems (FMVSS 208,ECE R94, injury criteria),
2. Windshield mounting (FMVSS 212),
3. Penetration of the windshield by vehicle body components (FMVSS 219),
4. Parcel-shelf and compartment lids (FMVSS 201).

Rating-Tests:
1. New-Car Assessment Program (NCAP, USA, Europe, Japan, Australia),
2. IIHS (USA, insurance test),
3. ADAC, ams, AUTO-BILD.

Deformation behavior of vehicle body

Due to the frequency of frontal collisions, an important role is played by the legally stipulated
frontal impact test in which a vehicle is
driven at a speed of 48.3 km/h (30 mph)
into a rigid barrier which is either
perpendicular or inclined at an angle of up
to 30 relative to the longitudinal axis of
the car. Because 50 % of all frontal
collisions in right-hand traffic primarily
involve the left-hand half of the front of
the vehicle, manufacturers worldwide
conduct left asymmetrical front impact
tests on LHD vehicles covering 30 ... 50 %
of the vehicle width.

In a frontal collision, kinetic energy is

absorbed through deformation of the bumper, the front of the vehicle, and in severe cases the
forward section of the passenger compartment (dash area). Axles, wheels (rims) and the engine
limit the deformable length. Adequate deformation lengths and displaceable vehicle aggregates
are necessary, however, in order to minimize passenger-compartment acceleration. Depending
upon vehicle design (body shape, type of drive and engine position), vehicle mass and size, a
frontal impact with a barrier at approx. 50 km/h results in permanent deformation in the
forward area of 0.4 ... 0.7 m. Damage to the passenger compartment should be minimized. This
concerns primarily:

1. Dash area (displacement of steering system, instrument panel, pedals, toe-panel

intrusion),
2. underbody (lowering or tilting of seats),
3. the side structure (ability to open the doors after an accident).
Acceleration measurements and evaluations of high-speed films enable deformation behavior to
be analyzed precisely. Dummies of various sizes are used to simulate vehicle occupants and
provide acceleration figures for head and chest as well as forces acting on thighs. Head
acceleration values are used to determine the head injury criterion (HIC). The comparison
of measured values supplied by the dummies with the permissible limit values as per FMVSS 208
208 (HIC:1000, chest acceleration: 60 g/3 ms, upper leg force: 10 kN) are only limited in their
applicability to the human being. The side impact, as the next most frequent type of accident,
places a high risk of injury on the vehicle occupants due to the limited energy absorbing
capability of trim and structural components, and the resulting high degree of vehicle
interior deformation. The risk of injury is largely influenced by the structural strength of the
side of the vehicle (pillar/door joints, top/bottom pillar points), load-carrying capacity of floor
cross-members and seats, as well as the design of inside door panels (FMVSS 214, ECE R95,
Euro-NCAP, US-SINCAP).In the rear impact test, deformation of the vehicle interior must
be minor at most. It should still be possible to open the doors, the edge of the trunk lid should
not penetrate the rear window and enter the vehicle interior, and fuel-system integrity must
be preserved (FMVSS 301).Roof structures are investigated by means of rollover tests and
quasi-static car-roof crush tests(FMVSS 216).In addition, at least one manufacturer subjects
his vehicles to the inverted vehicle drop test in order to test the dimensional stability of the
roof structure (survival space) under extreme conditions (the vehicle falls from a height of 0.5
m onto the left front corner of its roof).