Patent ID: 9533710
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: B60Y,B62D,F16F,Y02T

Claim:
1. A method for optimizing an axial crush performance of a twelve-cornered strengthening member, the method comprising: modeling a vehicle assembly including a strengthening member having a twelve-cornered cross section comprising sides and twelve corners creating internal angles and external angles between the sides, wherein each of the internal angles and the external angles are greater than 90 degrees and less than 180 degrees and wherein the strengthening member is a crush can, a roof structure, a front rail, a side rail, or a cross member; parameterizing a geometry of the strengthening member with a plurality of control parameters; defining a design of experiment using the plurality of control parameters; modeling a vehicle using the vehicle assembly; simulating a frontal impact event with the vehicle; generating a response surface based on the frontal impact event; determining a set of optimized control parameters for the strengthening member based on the response surface to optimize an axial crush performance of the strengthening member; and based at least in part on the optimized control parameters, manufacturing the strengthening member having the twelve-cornered cross section.