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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 982354

The Analysis of Vehicle Behavior and

Occupant Protection Methodology for
EURO-Side Impact in a Convertible Car
Jae-ho Cho, Dong-seok Kim and Myung-sik Lee
DAEWOO Motor CO., LTD

Reprinted From: Proceedings of the IBEC ’98, Volume 6, Safety, Environmental,

and Automotive Interior Systems
(P-335)

16th Annual Brake Colloquium and Engineering Display

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982354

The Analysis of Vehicle Behavior and Occupant Protection

Methodology for EURO-Side Impact in a Convertible Car
Jae-ho Cho, Dong-seok Kim and Myung-sik Lee
DAEWOO Motor CO., LTD

Copyright © 1998 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

ABSTRACT crash behavior of convertible style vehicle structures. The

This paper describes an analytical method to find
optimal side structure of convertible vehicle for occupant
protection using full vehicle finite element model
compared with typical notch-back style vehicle.
The strategy of occupant protection for convertible
vehicle is quite different from that of notch-back sedan in
the view point of vehicle structure due to the limitations in
building concept of side structures. In this study, the
strategy leading to reliable results in the convertible type
vehicle will be discussed.
This analysis work shows a good preliminary result for
predicting vehicle side structure behavior and occupant
injury in early stage of car developing program.
INTRODUCTION
It is now clear that passenger car side impact protection
has been brought to the forefront of crash-worthy design
activity by car manufacturers. Although the side crash only
accounts for about 19% of all crash types[1], occupant’s
validation and correlation with the actual full vehicle will be
performed in the near future.
This paper describes the analysis work carried out,
details the findings which can be used as design
guidelines to lead vehicle side structure design.
SIDE IMPACT SIMULATION MODEL
The European side impact(ECE R95) test involves a
side collision with EURO-MDB(Moving Deformable
Barrier) at an angle of 90ə and a test speed of 50km/h.
While there are mainly two different materials -
polyurethane and aluminum honeycombs used for EURO-
MDB, the barrier basically represents the behavior of the
front of a typical mid-sized European car. Its impact
position to the target vehicle is relative to the seating
position of the driver, R-Point shown in Figure 1.
ECE R95
R-Point

injury is more severe and critical in side impact than in

other type of accidents, because there is not enough
space between occupant and vehicle side structure to 50Km/h

absorb energy. As a consequence, great attention is now

being paid toward the side impact accidents and
automotive manufacturers have made great efforts to 90ȋ

improve safety of passengers through structural

modification and optimization. However, improvement of
]W
side impact protection is limited by interior space[2]. h h

As a part of the work in helping to develop and improve

vehicle crash behavior at the early design stage, some Y\W \ [ ]
major strategies focused on the traditional sedan which
have been published are acceptable to control the side % %
Y\W X Y Z
structural performance efficiently[3]. But this paper _WW
describes a design scheme for convertible vehicle which \WW \WW \WW \WW
h h
is quite different in side structure to reduce occupant injury 6HFW L RQ $ $ ZWW
compared with the typical notch-back style vehicle based *U RXQG /HYHO
on EURO-side impact test procedure. For this work, only
analytical investigation using the full vehicle finite element
|up{O””P
method has been performed to evaluate and analyze
Figure 1: ECE R 95 test arrangement.

1
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The barrier was positioned adjacent to the vehicle
structure so that its longitudinal centerline was aligned
with the R-point of the vehicle. Its height was adjusted so
that its lower edge was 300mm from ground level. The
barrier was given an initial velocity of 13.89m/s normal to
the vehicle longitudinal axis with mass of 950kg.
The dummy used in ECE R95 is EUROSID and its injury
criteria covers maximum acceleration level to the head, rib
deflection limits and peak forces to the abdomen and
pelvis. Injury criteria for ECE R95 is shown in table 1. The
requirement of injury criteria in ECE R95 is an indication
of how severe passenger is injured under the test
condition. The FE occupant model was developed by
OAPIL(Ove Arup Partners International Limited) in a
collaborative research project led by the Transport
Research Laboratory(TRL) in the UK. It has been proven
to give realistic results when compared with real crash
tests.
Table 1: Injury criteria for European test
Criteria for ECE R95
Head HPC < 1000
Thorax Deflection < 42 mm
VCmax < 1 m/s
Pelvis PSFP < 6.0 KN
Abdomen APF < 2.5KN
In this paper, the simulation of an European side impact
test is carried out with UTAC barrier, EUROSID dummy
and complete vehicle structure that consist of 79675 shell
elements, 95 beam elements and 10053 volume elements
as shown in Figure 2.
Finite element model for UTAC barrier has been
validated and satisfies the same specifications as those of
the test barriers. Finite element model for EUROSID
dummy is also validated by completing each parts and
whole dummy validation analysis.
Figure 2 : Full vehicle finite element model.
2
CONCEPT OF SIDE IMPAT OCCUPANT PROTECTION
In order to fulfill the requirement of the ECE side impact
with EUROSID dummy, many analysis and test have been
established to give recommendation which can be used
as design guideline for notch-back sedan vehicle. The
summary of design principle for vehicle body structure is
as follows:
1. Since the door intrusion which directly exacerbate
occupant injury is affected by center pillar, the side
structure must be designed in such a way that the
center-pillar lower intrudes earlier when crash occurs
and consequently change dummy’s kinematics in
predetermined manner. The floor deformation is
needed additionally if it is difficult to induce bending
mode sufficiently at lower level of center pillar.
2. The middle level of center pillar must not have any
local bending. The concentration of loading at middle
level such as the waistline of the door is likely to
exacerbate injury[4].
In our experience, the most interests of the
representative deformed shape of center pillar are in the
following three cases - “the best case”, “the better case”
and “the worst case” that are demarcated by its influence
to occupant’s thoracic injury as shown in Figure 3. The
best performance is achieved when the first deformed
shape occurs.
After the impact starts with 50km/h speed, the impacting
energy is transmitted and distributed to the vehicle
structure by the built up loading path which dominates the
deformation on local structure area. The flow of loading is
quite similar to the current of electric, which is
concentrated as the manner of avoiding resistance. As
shown in Figure 3, “the worst case” is the typical deformed
shape when the reinforcing system at B-pillar middle level
is not sufficient to restrain local bending and it directly
exacerbates thoracic injury of occupant by increasing door
intrusion on such level.
Therefore, the next approach is to control the intrusion
profile by allowing the intrusion point of B-pillar to move
downwards to the lower level, similar to the best case in
Figure 3, that is, strengthening the middle of B-pillar and
weakening the lower level of B-pillar.
Sometimes, “the better case” may be suitable to fulfill
the legal requirements in such a case that the deformation
of B-pillar cannot be controlled as the former case
because the stiffening joint or interaction of the door and
sill constrains the control of lower bending mode. In such
a case, under-body deformation can help to maintain an
upright profile against the dummy.
For the convertible vehicle, the strategy to occupant
protection seems to be contrasted with notch-back style
vehicle. In trying to understand what happens in
convertible vehicle, an analysis work has been performed
in the following manner with a base model designed in the
first stage.
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B-PILLAR THE WORST CASE
THE BEST CASE
50 km/h
MDB
THE BETTER CASE
: LOADING PATH
Figure 3 : Typical deformed shape of B-Pillar.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
BASELINE
The baseline analysis predicts the injury values beyond
the design target of upper rib compression and upper rib
viscous criterion. Figure 4 shows the predicted
deformation of the vehicle by the end of the analysis
(100msec). The deformation of the structure consists
mainly of intrusion of the door and the rear side structure
between the A-pillar and the rear wheel arch. The sill
shows little sign of crushing of intruding into the floor
structure. The door outer panel bends around the
relatively stiff door beltline section and side intrusion
beam. It can be seen in this figure how the B-pillar also
resists the intrusion of the barrier. The bottom of the door
rides over the sill as the barrier pushes it into the vehicle.
Figure 5 shows section view through the occupant and
vehicle structure. The Figure illustrates the mechanisms of
occupant loading during the event. By the time the door
meets the occupant, the seat moves with the vehicle
structure as it accelerates. The pelvis is loaded by the trim
panel, door inner and door outer bottom out against the
barrier face. The abdomen is loaded aggressively as the
armrest bottoms out in a similar manner. The ribs are
struck by the beltline region of the door, which is mostly
above the top edge of the barrier. Nevertheless, as the
barrier pushes the door into the vehicle, the beltline
moves in to strike the ribs at approximately the same time
as the lower body is loaded.
Figure 4 Vehicle deformation of baseline analysis
3
This figure also illustrates how the door rides over the
sill section. The deformation of the floor and sill is limited
to a small rotation of the sill section around the floor panel.
It can be seen from the displacement traces in Figure 6.
And there is no direct loading path between the B-pillar
and the center floor center-member, which enables the B-
pillar to bend in and buckle the floor side part. It can also
be seen that the upper and lower side-member
reinforcements rotate about their rearmost ends when the
B-pillar intrudes, and offer little resistance.
Figure 5 Section view of occupant loading
The sill and floor structure show little amounts of
collapse, and the main areas of deformation are the door
and rear side structure. The reason for the predicted
results exceeding design target values can be attributed to
specific areas of the vehicle structure. The ribs are loaded
by the beltline of the door. The section of the beltline is
compared with two closed sections made by the inner and
the outer panels and the their reinforcements. The heavy
loading of the ribs can be attributed immediately to the
stiffness of beltline inner, and then later to the bottoming
out of the beltline inner section against the beltline outer.
The intrusion of the side structure is partly governed by
the intrusion of the B-pillar. The greatest intrusion point in
the vehicle side structure is at the top of the B-pillar. This
is because the B-pillar bends inwards to its base as it is
struck by the barrier. It is considered beneficial to improve
the load path between the B-pillar and the strong floor
structure to resist this mechanism.
To improve the occupant response in side impact, the
iteration has been performed with structure being modified
as follows. As mentioned earlier, the intrusion of the
vehicle side structure at the top of the B-pillar due to its
bending about its base can be attributed to a poor
connection between the B-pillar and the center floor
center-member which could offer significant resistance to
this mechanism. The first modification therefore is to
improve this load path by insert an extra part to combine
the side structure with center-member. The second
modification is to remove the door inner beltline
reinforcement from the baseline model to reduce the
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immediate stiffness of the contact point with the rib, which

allows the inner panel to flatten more easily.
The effect to crash performance in frontal barrier impact
will be reviewed in frontal crash analysis and discussed
more in detail in the future work.

Figure 6 Displacement traces at B-pillar waistline and sill

DESIGN ITERATION

The modification results are compared with baseline

results in Figure 7. The levels of rib and abdomen loading
have been significantly reduced with the design
modifications. The analysis predicts a marginal
improvement on all dummy injury parameters of the Figure 8 Comparison of analysis results
EURO-side impact. Compression and VC at upper rib.

 Comparison of Analysis results



Baseline
Upper

Iteration
Middle

Lower

Upper

Middle

Lower

Abdomen Force

Pubic Force

Rib
Compression Viscous
Figure 7 Comparison of analysis
Criterion results

Figures 8 to 11 show a comparison between the

baseline results and the modification results. The first
three Figures illustrate a significant improvement in rib
loading, peak compression and viscous criteria. Figure 11
shows that the peak loads on the abdomen and pelvis are
reached earlier in the modification analysis, and the
magnitude of the abdomen load has been significantly Figure 9 Comparison of analysis results
reduced. Compression and VC at middle rib.

4
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CONCLUSIONS

A finite element model of the convertible vehicle was

constructed for side impact analysis. The model was
analyzed under the European side impact test conditions
specified in ECE-R95.
Based on the baseline analysis, it was predicted that
occupant injury would exceed the design target value.
Specifically, the upper rib compression and viscous
criterion were predicted at peak levels of 10% and 1%
over the target value respectively.
Therefore, design modifications such as B-pillar lower
joint and door beltline section concept were made to
improve occupant safety.
The analysis with modified model predicted occupant
injury that was within the limits of the design target,
Thus these modifications are beneficial to reduce
occupant injury.

REFERENCES

1. A.K.Pickett, “Side Impact Simulation Techniques”, A

workshop training course for Pam-Crash users, Japan, 1995
2. J.H.Cho, S.B.Jung, S.E.Kwon, M.S.Lee, “The Analysis of
Vehicle Behaviors and Occupant Injury for Side Impact in a
Passenger Car” Technical Review(DWMC), PP.112 - 121,
1996
3. C.Adrian Hobbs, "Dispelling the Misconceptions about Side
Figure 10 Comparison of analysis results Impact Protection", SAE Technical Report, No. 950879,
Compression and VC at lower rib. 1995
4. Rolf Bergmann, Claudia Bremer, Xuefeng Wang, Arnold
Enblen, “Requirements of Comprehensive Side Protection
and Their Effections on Car Development”, 15th ESV
Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 1996
5. Shuji Yamaguchi, “Concept of Side Impact Occupant
Protection and Evaluation Method for Automobile
Development”, Strategies for Side Impact Protection, PP. 49
- 63, 1993
6. John O. Hallquist, “LS-DYNA3D Theoretical Manual”, 1991

Figure 11 Comparison of analysis results

Abdomen and Pubic Symphysis Force.