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Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) plays an important role in the product development. Now a days major decisions like concept selection and design sign off are taken based on CAE. All the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are putting consistent efforts to improve accuracy of the CAE results. In recent years confidence on CAE prediction has been increased mainly because of good correlation of CAE predictions with the test results. Defining proper correlation criteria and using a systematic approach helps significantly in building the overall confidence level for predictions given by CAE simulations. Representation of manufacturing effects on material properties and material failure in the simulation is still a big challenge for achieving a good CAE correlation. This paper describes side impact test vs CAE correlation. The important parameters affecting the CAE correlation were discussed.

Pedestrian protection is becoming an increasingly important aspect in vehicle safety development across the globe. The two primary focus areas are protection to the head and the lower leg of the pedestrian in impacts with motor vehicles. This paper discusses the protection aspects for lower leg in pedestrian impacts. The pedestrian lower leg injuries are measured in the form of deceleration; bend angle and knee shear as stated in regulations. Careful study indicates that a minimum of two load paths namely the upper load path (to support the femur) and the lower load path (to support tibia) are required to control the above stated injuries. Careful optimization is required to balance the stiffness on both the load paths. This paper further focuses on the component optimization to achieve necessary stiffness along the lower load path for injury control. One of the lower load path usually consists of the bumper, “lower stiffener” and its fixing system.

There is a continuous effort in enhancing the automobile crashworthiness while also trying to reduce weight. This up-gradation is even more difficult if the vehicle is in production due to additional constraints of production feasibility. Higher strength steels and add-on reinforcements are typical measures taken in such circumstances. Even these modifications require manufacturing setup changes and may lead to increase in product weight. One of the critical issues in automotive safety is to ensure passenger compartment integrity which is sometimes compromised due to section shape failure of a critical member. New concepts using structural foams have been introduced for increased strength. These materials work by avoiding collapse of critical sections and have the potential to provide adequate section strength with minimum mass penalty.