A comparative study on vehicle aluminum and steel hood assemblies
Title:
A comparative study on vehicle aluminum and steel hood assemblies
Author:
Shahbeyk, S. Kamalan, A. Osanlou, M.
Appeared in:
International journal of crashworthiness
Paging:
Volume 8 (2003) nr. 4 pages 367-374
Year:
2003-01-01
Contents:
A vehicle hood experiences several loading conditions during its lifetime. It may vary from the application of moderate torsion and bending moments during hood opening and closing to a severe dynamic crumpling in vehicle frontal crash. Hence, hood assembly should be capable to fulfill various structural requirements. The present study aims at comparing two alternative designs (steel and aluminum) from static strength, pedestrian protection, and crashworthy points of view. Torsion and bending strengths, head injury criterion (HIC) values, energy absorption capacities, and hinge forces are the main results which the comparison is made on. In spite of a forty percent reduction in hood assembly weight, the aluminum hood shows an acceptable level of behavior in most cases.