Vehicle crashworthinesss imulation has become increasingly important in recent years from the standpoint of determining feasible structure within a limited period. This paper describes simulation of a full scale passenger car with an explicit finite element method in case of a frontal crash.

Discussions on how to validate a full vehicle simulation model with respect to vehicle deformation and rotation of passenger compartment in a vertical plane are presented. For the former, it is shown that deliberated component models such as crossmember, engine supports, and sliding interfaces between suspension towers and dash upper, etc., result in a good correlation between experiment and simulation. For the latter, main components such as hinge pillars, doors, tires are characterized in such a way that good correlations between dynamic component tests and simulation are achieved. As a result, it is found that a simulation by a full vehicle model agrees quite well with the experimental results in relation to the rotational behavior of vehicle.

Analytical results to represent the crash characteristics by means of internal energies and transmitted forces among various components are also presented. This approach will be useful to examine and to improve the crashworthiness.