The effect of bulge height and length on the lateral crash behaviour of front platform of a compressed natural gas vehicle

This paper describes the crash analysis of a mild steel front platform of a natural gas vehicle. The objective is to determine the effect of bulge height, H, and bulge length, L, on the crashworthiness properties. Catia V5, Hypermesh and LSDYNA3D softwares were used in the analysis. The crashworthiness parameters are energy adsorption and crash distance. For the effect of bulge height on energy absorbed and crash distance, a platform with L = 750.0 mm was used with H varied from 0 to 140 mm. For the effect of L, a platform with H = 140.0 mm was used with L varied from 200.0 to 1350.0 mm. For all cases, the bulge diameter, D, was 200.0 mm. The crash was due to lateral impact of a rigid wall with velocity of 50 km/h (13.9 m/s). The results showed that the maximum energy absorption of 7914.0 J was obtained for L = 750.0 mm and H = 120.0 mm.