Origin
In the years 1970 attempts were made to simulate car crash events with non-linear spring-mass systems after calibration, which require as an input the results of physical destructive laboratory tests, needed to determine the mechanical crushing behavior of each spring component of the modeled system. "First principle" simulations like more elaborate finite element models, however, need only the definition of the structural geometry and the basic material properties (rheology of car body steel, glass, plastic parts, etc.) as an input to generate the numerical model.
The origins of industrial first principle computerized car crash simulation lie in military defense, outer space and civil nuclear power plant applications. Upon presentation of a simulation of the accidental crash of a military fighter plane into a nuclear power plant on May 30, 1978 by ESI Group in a meeting organized by the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) in Stuttgart, car makers became alerted to the possibility of using this technology for the simulation of destructive car crash tests (Haug 1981).
In the following years, German car makers produced more complex crash simulation studies, simulating the crash behavior of individual car body components, component assemblies, and quarter and half car bodies in white (BIW). These experiments culminated in a joint project by the Forschungsgemeinschaft Automobil-Technik (FAT), a conglomeration of all seven German car makers (Audi, BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Porsche, and Volkswagen), which tested the applicability of two emerging commercial crash simulation codes. These simulation codes recreated a frontal impact of a full passenger car structure (Haug 1986) and they ran to completion on a computer overnight. Now that turn-around time between two consecutive job-submissions (computer runs) did not exceed one day, engineers were able to make efficient and progressive improvements of the crash behavior of the analyzed car body structure.
Read more about this topic: Crash Simulation
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