Crash behavior and energy absorption of bus’s front structure under dynamic impact

Abstract

This paper presents finite element simulations for the crash behavior and the energy absorption of frontal structure of bus. The frontal structure is reinforced with variable tubular cross-sections to improve the peak-force and energy absorbtion. The explicit finite element code LS-DYNA is carried out by simulation to determine the desired cross-sections for the design of bus’s front structure. The peak-force and the energy absorption responses during the head-on impact are the two main measurements of the frontal structure’s performance. The research result shows that the use of multi-conic-aluminum tubes can reduce 50 % of the peak-force while the total absorbed energy can be greatly increased, so the crashworthiness of the bus’s front structure is significantly improved.