Computational Robust Design Methods for Vehicle Crash Safety

The automotive vehicle product safety performance and quality have been determined by design decisions with computer simulations. The robust design optimization method, on the other hand, has gotten more and more attention in early design stage. This paper focused on the robust design technology development for vehicle structure design. First, some fundamental aspects of the safety optimization methodology, including uniform Latin hypercube sampling, response surface models and reliability-based design optimization were introduced, and the robust design process based on the response surface method was discussed. Then, a flowchart of robust design optimization for crash safety was presented. Finally, some numerical examples were provided for demonstration. Numerical results showed this process took about 30% less design cycle time and reduced about 40% design cost.