Design and Finite Element Analysis of Customized Local Road Vehicles (CLRV): The Case for the Tricycle and the Philippine Jeepney

Customized local road vehicles (CLRV) in the Philippines have not been tested for crashworthiness and testing of such comes with great amount of resources. These vehicles are used nationwide and creating a baseline for its standardization is a must to ensure safety of the passengers and its cargo. Thereupon, a study on crashworthiness of CLRV structures is imperative. The non-linear finite element analysis (FEA) approach to study crashworthiness was not a popular choice in the past due to technological constraints and the excessive cost it entails in comparison to the other approaches. But with today’s technological advancements, FEA modeling and analysis of large-scale structures are processes that can be executed. With that, the FEA Design Center Facility of the Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC) was able to evaluate the crashworthiness of the CLRV. In this project, CAD and FEA models were created to simulate the actual crash testing used to evaluate its crashworthiness. The CAD and FEA construction are based on available engineering standards and the simulation aims to investigate the crashworthiness of the CLRV. The CAD model was constructed using a 3D scanner and reverse engineering tools such as Geomagic Design X and SIEMENS NX. The FEA model were developed in SIEMENS NX and imported to Pre-Sys VPG, which has set of tools for setting up the crash test simulations.