Abstract
In this paper, a new smart front-end structure is proposed to improve vehicle
crashworthiness. It consists of two non-extendable hydraulic absorbers parallel to the
longitudinal members. The work carried out in this paper includes developing and analyzing
mathematical models of vehicle-to-vehicle frontal collision events. In these models, vehicle
components are modeled by lumped masses and nonlinear springs. Moreover, the hydraulic
absorbers are represented by nonlinear dampers elements. Cubic nonlinear form is used to
define the characteristics of both nonlinear springs and dampers. In this paper, the dynamic
responses of the crash events are obtained with the aid of an analytical approach using
Incremental Harmonic Balance Method (IHBM). Moreover, the intrusion injury and occupant
deceleration are used for interpreting the results. It is demonstrated from simulation results
that significant improvements to both intrusion and deceleration injuries are obtained using
the smart front-end structure. Furthermore, the crash severity has been significantly
minimized.
Keywords: Crashworthiness, full and offset frontal impact, vehicle safety, smart front-
end structure, and analytical analysis