Application of viscoelastic hybrid models to vehicle crash simulation

Abstract

This paper presents an application of physical models composed of springs, dampers and masses in various arrangements to simulate a real car collision with a rigid pole. Equations of motion of these systems are being established and subsequently solutions to obtain differential equations are formulated. We begin with a general model consisting of two masses, two springs and two dampers and illustrate its application to modelling fore-frame and aft-frame of a vehicle. Hybrid models, as being particular cases of two-mass–spring–damper model, are elaborated afterwards and their application to predict results of real collision is shown. Models’ parameters are obtained by fitting their response equations to the real vehicle's crush coming from the data measurement analysis. For the full-scale experiment and created models we perform comparative analysis of both kinematic and energy responses.

Keywords:

• vehicle crash
• energy absorbers
• hybrid models
• kinematics
• modelling