抄録
Dealing with car frontal crash, previous research has indicated that front side member plays major role in energy absorption. For protecting the passengers, the front side member is expected to absorb crash energy as much as possible. In this study, the front side member with half cut type is studied by parameter study and optimum design method. An optimal design system of the half cut type side member is developed, in which the objective function is to maximize the absorbed energy of side member structure; the design variables are structural parameters, number of edges of polygonal cross section; spot welding pitch length; and thickness of thin-walled side member structure; the constrained condition is that the mass of optimal side member must be less than the allowed value. The parameter study and optimum design results are then discussed. The effect of absorbed energy with each design variable is studied. And the optimal side member structure is capable of absorbing energy 17.01% more than that of original half cut type of box-shaped cross sectional side member structure which is generally used.
