Abstract
This paper results of a study towards the improvement of the compatibility between passenger cars. A fleet of four vehicles, each from a different class, was modeled using multi-body techniques. The stiffness of components in the front ends was optimized numerically to minimize injuries in frontal car to car collisions. Because of the complexity first the most relevant structural components and injury criteria were selected on the basis of parametric studies of car to barrier crashes. Next optimizations of car to car crashes were performed extending gradually from a minimum fleet of two vehicles to the full fleet of four vehicles. The study shows that injuries in incompatible scenarios can be reduced significantly by adjustment of the front-end stiffness of the different vehicles.