Center Pillar Design for High Bending Collapse Performance

High bending collapse performance (maximum resistance force and mean resistance force) of body center pillar is an important design target for vehicle safety against side impact. In this study, effect of the upper section shape and the thickness of outer reinforcement on bending collapse performance was investigated for the center pillar of a large passenger car. First, through bending collapse analyses using simple models with uniform section, an optimized center pillar upper section was chosen. Next, bending collapse performance for various models of the actual center pillar with changing the thickness of outer reinforcement were analyzed. The finally designed model showed distinctive enhancement in bending collapse performance nearly without weight increase.