| Abstract [eng] |
Cars and accidents are inseparable. The first car accidents have been dated since the 19th century, when the history of cars was just at its beginning. With the development of cars, with the growing demand for faster means of transport and the occurring availability of affordable cars for every working person, the number of cars appearing out on the streets rose, however, with the growing number of cars, accidents inevitably increased. The tragic consequence of many accidents, which have resulted in fatalities was not acceptable. Car manufacturers had a challenge to lower the injuries and started working on a significant task, which main goal was to improve vehicles so that injuries to the driver and passengers are kept to a minimum. To achieve this goal, car manufacturers had to improve their vehicles, they introduced various safety components, developed active and passive safety systems, and finally, before launching new mass-produced vehicles, collision tests that simulate the conditions of certain road accidents have been introduced to assess car safety. Modern crash tests are very diverse and informative, it is revealing both, the weaknesses, and the strengths of the car, so it can be noticed which parts still needs to be improved. However, while testing the car in a crash test, the car is seen as a set of all the components, although the greatest work is performed on structures that are slightly deeper than visible body parts and a sleek exterior. For an even broader understanding of how certain, individual components or their systems react in the event of an impact or accident, individual tests can be applied to these structures. This study deals with one such individual test, which examines the deformations and stresses that occur in the traverse beam of a passenger car during an impact. This component was chosen for the study for a reason – a frontal impact is one of the most common types of accidents. During the study, it is observed how by changing the geometry of the passenger car frame transverse beam, beam parameters such as beam wall thickness, or materials that are used for beam production, etc. the absolute deformations after impact vary and what maximum stresses are achievable. This type of testing is significant to the traverse beam optimization process. For this study, the calculations of deformations and stresses during impact is performed using Solidworks Simulation software. The initial model for these calculations is the traverse beam that is used on Volkswagen Passat B5 model cars. The study observes changes in deformations and stresses when making changes in the traverse beam and assesses whether this type of change is beneficial in terms of shock absorption and component production cost, component production complexity and performance changes. |
