AS CARS GET SMALLER, DESIGNING FOR SAFETY GETS TOUGHER
Maintaining strength, stiffness, and crashworthiness properties of cars while simultaneously reducing their size and weight is a major challenge facing automobile manufacturers today. To meet this challenge, they are turning increasingly to improved and new materials that are stronger and lighter; to structural optimization techniques that use computers to determine the lightest possible structures for cars; and to improved crash testing, either simulated or real. With structural crashworthiness, the structure is designed to undergo only one loading. That is, the structure is sacrificed during an accident or collision to save the occupants and cargo. This means that the mechanical properties during both the elastic and plastic range of the material are of major concern to the structural design engineer. Materials used in the front and rear structures must provide excellent energy absorption throughout the complete deformation of the vehicle. On the other hand, materials used in the passenger compartment structure must exhibit high strength properties with a somewhat more limited range of deformation and with correspondingly less emphasis on their energy absorption properties. High-strength steel grades, up to eight times stronger than mild carbon steels, are used to produce thinner, lighter components.
-
Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00256501
-
Corporate Authors:
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Two Park Avenue
New York, NY United States 10016-5990 - Publication Date: 1983-10
Media Info
- Features: References;
- Pagination: p. 32-39
-
Serial:
- Mechanical Engineering
- Volume: 105
- Issue Number: 10
- Publisher: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
- ISSN: 0025-6501
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Applications; Automobiles; Automotive engineering; Compact automobiles; Computer aided design; Crash tests; Crashworthiness; Deformation; High strength steel; Legislation; Prevention; Regulations; Safety; Steel structures; Stiffness; Strength of materials; Vehicle design; Vehicle safety; Weight
- Geographic Terms: United States
- Old TRIS Terms: Energy-absorbing structures; Government regulations; Small car; Unitized body construction; Vehicular safety; Weight control
- Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Law; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Vehicles and Equipment; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00385852
- Record Type: Publication
- Source Agency: Engineering Index
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Jun 28 1984 12:00AM