Numerical-experimental study on the crashworthiness of a windshield A-pillar

Abstract

This document reports a numerical and experimental crashworthiness study of a vehicle structural component. Particularly, a windshield A-pillar made of a novel high-strength steel was tested on an apparatus for impact tests that was in-house designed so as to reproduce the effects of a vehicle side impact crash. In parallel, numerical simulations were performed using the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA, considering different elastic-plastic material constitutive laws with damage. A comparison between numerical and experimental outcomes demonstrated a satisfactory correlation, with the GISSMO model that provided a good correlation and needed a relatively low computational effort.