Side Structure Sensitivity to Passenger Car Crashworthiness During Pole Side Impact

Side impact accidents of passenger cars with fixed poles may result in severe injuries to the vehicle occupants. In this paper, side structure intrusion was considered as the criterion for passenger cars crashworthiness during side impact with a pole. The relationship between side intrusions and the side structure stiffness was analyzed. The acceleration of the unstruck side vehicle body was selected as the criterion for studying the influence of different side structure components on the side structure stiffness during passenger car pole side impacts. The behavior was analyzed using finite element simulations. The results show that the rocker and the lower part of the B-pillar are the key parts of the side structures in determining the passenger car side stiffness. Passenger car pole side impact crashworthiness is, therefore, most sensitive to these two components.