DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF SPACE-FRAME BASED LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURE FOR UNDERRIDE ACCIDENT PROTECTION SYSTEMS

• Main Author: Edi Saputra, Wawan
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/70182
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The number of big motorized vehicles or Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) in Indonesia has increased by 5.68% per year based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics for the 2014-2018 period. This increase increases the risk of underride accident cases between HGV and passenger vehicles. This accident has a very high fatality rate. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that underride accidents have a fatality percentage of 14% or the second highest after frontal crash cases. The high fatality rate has encouraged much research to be developed on a passive protection system structure called Rear Underride Protection (RUP). This structure serves to minimize the injury severity rate by eliminating the occurrence of structure mismatch. Referring to CMVSS regulation No. 223, the RUP structure must be able to withstand a minimum load of 350 KN and absorb 20 KJ of energy. Based on these requirements, research was carried out to develop RUP performance with a space frame structure strategy. This innovation has been widely applied to the lightweight structure industry to obtain components with strong and lightweight requirements. Parametric studies on several variations were carried out to obtain the optimal RUP configuration. Variations simulation such as differences in geometrical cross-section, and connection strategies between parts. The numerical simulation process based on the finite element method (FEM) was carried out using the explicit dynamics LS-DYNA software. The RUP structures are modeled using 2D-shell elements with isotropic materials mild steel and AA 6061-T6. From the simulation of a quasistatic load with a speed of 0.5 mm/ms at the half-length of the guard component, the configuration of the RUP-Space Frame structure with the M-14 type bolt attachment can produce a Peak Force (PF) performance of 281 KN with an Energy Absorption (EA) of 21.1 KJ. This performance is quite comparable to the experiment results on the RUP-Wabash trailer rear impact test with an EA difference of 1.86%.