Modeling, Testing, and Validation of the 2007 Chevy Silverado Finite Element Model

The National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) at the George Washington University (GWU) has been developing and maintaining a public domain library of finite element (FE) vehicle models for use in transportation safety research. Using the NCAC’s unique and innovative reverse-engineering process, an FE model of the 2007 Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck was developed. This pick-up truck satisfies the requirements for a 2270P test vehicle under the soon to be adopted crashworthiness evaluation criteria specified in the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH). Since this FE model will be extensively used to design safer roadside barriers, the representation of the suspension system and its dynamic response becomes a critical factor influencing the performance of the roadside barrier. To improve the FE model fidelity and applicability to the roadside hardware impact scenarios it is important to validate and verify the model to a multitude of component and full-scale tests. A series of highly instrumented, non-destructive, full-scale tests and destructive, component-level suspension tests were conducted to gather data for validating the suspension system of the FE model. This paper provides a description of the vehicle FE model, the various component and full-scale tests that were performed, and the current status of the model validation to these physical tests.

• Record URL:
  http://www.ncac.gwu.edu/research/reports.html
• Corporate Authors:

  National Crash Analysis Center

  The George Washington University
  20101 Academic Way
  Ashburn, VA  United States  20147

  Federal Highway Administration

  Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike
  McLean, VA  United States  22101
• Authors:
  • Mohan, Pradeep
  • Ritter, Mathias
  • Marzougui, Dhafer
  • Brown, Dan
  • Kan, Cing-Dao
  • Opiela, Kenneth
• Publication Date: 2009-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Edition: Working Paper
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barriers (Roads); Crashworthiness; Finite element method; Highway safety; Pickup trucks; Test vehicles; Testing
• Uncontrolled Terms: Model validation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01167119
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NCAC 2009-W-005
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 31 2010 12:16PM