Abstract
Car manufacturers are increasingly concerned with car to car crash compatibility issues. Some events that are found in car to car collisions do not occur in single vehicle collisions. Statistical analyses of real accidents point out that under/overriding phenomenon in frontal collisions is usual. These analyses have also been used to study the effect of under / overriding on occupants injury level. In this work CAE tools have been used to gain further insight into this topic.
About ten different crashes have been simulated using the finite element models of SEAT Toledo and Ibiza. The variables under study have been the vertical mismatch of longitudinals, closing velocity and material parameters.
When vertical mismatch occurs, structural displacements and dummy loads are compared with regard to the opponent vehicle and with regard to the situation with no under/overriding. Results show good agreement with accident analysis.