Automobile Hood/Fender Design Optimization for Improved Pedestrian Head Impact Protection

This paper presents procedures for automobile structure design to reduce head injury of pedestrians struck by the vehicle. The fender and hood seam of a 1988 Ford Taurus are modified to absorb the energy of a head impact. Two shape related design parameters are optimized for minimum Head Injury Criterion using finite element simulations. A design is presented which reduces Head Injury Criterion by over 50 percent. All analyses are conducted using the explicit, nonlinear, dynamic finite element code DYNA3D on a Cray YMP/832 supercomputer.

Head Injury Reduction in Automobile Pedestrian Impact

This article presents and discusses automobile hood/fender rail design to reduce head injury of pedestrians struck by the front of the vehicle. Fender seam designs are presented that reduce the head injury criterion values by over 50%. The procedures and analysis are conducted using a nonlinear dynamic finite element program for an Oldsmobile Ciera hood and a Ford Taurus hood/fender.