A COMPARISON OF THE CRASHWORTHINESS PERFORMANCE OF GEOMETRICALLY IDENTICAL ALUMINIUM AND MAGNESIUM STEERING WHEEL ARMATURES

This research deals with experimental impact testing and crashworthiness evaluation of geometrically identical aluminium and magnesium alloy steering wheel armatures. The aluminium wheel was made of a proprietary alloy developed by K S Centoco Ltd and has a high degree of ductility and the magnesium wheel was made of an alloy from the AM50A magnesium alloy series. The approximate weight reduction achievable by employing the AM50A alloy is 2.98 N (or a 0.304 kg mass reduction). Sixteen different testing conditions were investigated which considered variations in the impact velocity of a rigid plate and the location of impact on the steering wheel armature. A crashworthiness analysis of the experimental results has shown that the aluminium armature has a higher amount of energy absorption than the magnesium armature with approximately equal peak impact loads. The deflections associated with the impact tests are larger for the magnesium armature. The elastic energy response for the magnesium armature is significantly higher than that of the aluminium armature and the aluminium armature is less sensitive to changes in the energy absorption factor for all the testing conditions considered in this study. (A)

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13588265
• Corporate Authors:

  Woodhead Publishing, Limited

  Abington Hall, Abington
  Cambridge,   United Kingdom  CB1 6AH
• Authors:
  • ALTENHOF, W J
  • AMES, W
  • FRISE, P R
  • GHRIB, F
• Publication Date: 2003

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 237-46
• Serial:
  • International Journal of Crashworthiness
  • Volume: 8
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: Taylor & Francis
  • ISSN: 1358-8265
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tcrs20

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Absorption; Alloys; Aluminum; Crash tests; Crashes; Deformation; Energy; Evaluation and assessment; Magnesium; Steering wheels
• ITRD Terms: 6758: Absorption; 4532: Alloy; 7168: Aluminium; 1631: Collision; 5595: Deformation; 213: Energy; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 1648: Impact test (crash); 7188: Magnesium; 1307: Steering wheel
• Subject Areas: Energy; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00962567
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD
• Created Date: Sep 3 2003 12:00AM