Machine for evaluating the behaviour, in terms of absorbing energy from collisions, of a plurality of the configurations of a crossmember forming a mechanical component of a vehicle by means of at least one piece of computer-aided design software, characterized in that it comprises: - a memory area containing a generic model, in a formal language, of said crossmember, said generic model comprising form parameterization by associating, with all or some of the geometric form values of a basic model, form parameters which can vary in predetermined ranges, the geometric form values defining surfaces to which a naming function is applied, said naming function attributing, by a tree-like naming convention, a unique name to each surface, one of the depth, half-cross section, half-length and inside and outside curve angle parameters being associated respectively with each form value in order to define said crossmember in dimensions of geometric quantities, rules for controlling values of said parameters between upper limits and lower limits, and a specification for simulation of the behaviour, in terms of absorbing energy from collisions, of said crossmember depending on said parameters; - a first sequence of computer instructions for automatically generating a plurality of individual models, each associated with a configuration of said crossmember, by assigning, to the parameters of the generic model, configuration values controlled by said rules on the basis of at least one row of attributable input values for each parameter for each configuration to be evaluated; with each individual configuration model being stored along the way in a computer file; - a second sequence of computer instructions (53a, 53b, 53c, 54) for launching digital simulations of the behaviour, in terms of absorbing energy from collisions, of the individual models by means of said specification, said second sequence of instructions automatically, and independently of the first sequence, launching the simulations of the individual models by consecutively loading into a computer one of the files stored by the first sequence and, when the rate of the files stored by the first sequence is faster than that of a simulation by a computer, the second sequence distributes loading the files of the individual models over several simulation computers, the one or more simulation computers storing in their turn the results of each simulation in a computer file; and - a third sequence of processing computer instructions for producing, on the basis of said simulations, one or more values of the evaluation of the behaviour, in terms of absorbing energy from collisions, of each configuration with which an individual model is associated, the third sequence of instructions automatically processing at least one performance criterion, as soon as the second sequence outputs a simulation result or after the second sequence has outputted all the simulation results. - a memory area containing a generic model, in a formal language, of said crossmember, said generic model comprising form parameterization by associating, with all or some of the geometric form values of a basic model, form parameters which can vary in predetermined ranges, the geometric form values defining surfaces to which a naming function is applied, said naming function attributing, by a tree-like naming convention, a unique name to each surface, one of the depth, half-cross section, half-length and inside and outside curve angle parameters being associated respectively with each form value in order to define said crossmember in dimensions of geometric quantities, rules for controlling values of said parameters between upper limits and lower limits, and a specification for simulation of the behaviour, in terms of absorbing energy from collisions, of said crossmember depending on said parameters; - a first sequence of computer instructions for automatically generating a plurality of individual models, each associated with a configuration of said crossmember, by assigning, to the parameters of the generic model, configuration values controlled by said rules on the basis of at least one row of attributable input values for each parameter for each configuration to be evaluated; with each individual configuration model being stored along the way in a computer file; - a second sequence of computer instructions (53a, 53b, 53c, 54) for launching digital simulations of the behaviour, in terms of absorbing energy from collisions, of the individual models by means of said specification, said second sequence of instructions automatically, and independently of the first sequence, launching the simulations of the individual models by consecutively loading into a computer one of the files stored by the first sequence and, when the rate of the files stored by the first sequence is faster than that of a simulation by a computer, the second sequence distributes loading the files of the individual models over several simulation computers, the one or more simulation computers storing in their turn the results of each simulation in a computer file; and - a third sequence of processing computer instructions for producing, on the basis of said simulations, one or more values of the evaluation of the behaviour, in terms of absorbing energy from collisions, of each configuration with which an individual model is associated, the third sequence of instructions automatically processing at least one performance criterion, as soon as the second sequence outputs a simulation result or after the second sequence has outputted all the simulation results.