Optimization of vehicle pulse index parameters based on validated vehicle-occupant finite element model

Abstract

Vehicle safety performance is important to reduce occupant injuries during accidents. In general, vehicle manufacturers are utilizing analytical models to predict the vehicle passive safety performance during the early design stage. The two popular methods are the Occupant Limit Criterion (OLC) and Vehicle Pulse Index (VPI). In this paper, new VPI parameters are proposed to predict the driver 3 ms chest acceleration of Hybrid III 50th percentile (H350) in B-segment vehicle subjected to generic crash load cases. A good correlation between the newly optimized VPI parameters with the measured 3 ms chest acceleration is observed in this work. More refinement can be further included to improve the robustness of the new proposed parameters by adding more sampling data.

Keywords:

• Vehicle pulse index
• passive safety
• occupant injury
• finite element analysis

Acknowledgement

Authors wish to convey a sincere gratitude to the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) for providing the financial means during the preparation to complete this research under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) – FRGS/1/2020/TK02/UTHM/02/5, Vot K331, and UTHM Contract Research Grant – Vot H276, respectively. The authors also would like to thank Center for Collision Safety and Analysis (CCSA) of George Mason University (GMU) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for developing the 2010 Toyota Yaris finite element model used in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) – FRGS/1/2020/TK02/UTHM/02/5, Vot K331.