Final Project Presentation

Study of Frontal Impact of a Passenger Bus

Manjunath Rao T S
BBB0906034
M. Sc. (Engg.) in Automotive Engineering

Academic Guide :
Mr. Madan J
Project Manager,
SASTECH, Bangalore

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 Aim and Objectives of the Project
Aim :
To study frontal impact of a passenger bus and to
recommend methods to improve safety
Objectives :
• To review the literature on effects of impact on passenger
buses
• To study relevant analytical models that are available in
the literature
• To simulate the frontal impact behavior of the passenger
bus
• To analyze and interpret the results with the experimental
data available in literatures
• To suggest some design changes in order to improve
structure safety
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 Methodology

• Literature review on Crashworthiness of bus will be carried out

by referring reviewed journals, books and related documents
• Geometric modeling of bus structure will be carried out using
CATIA V5 R16 / Pro-E 2001
• FE model generation for all the parts will be carried out using
Hypermesh 7.0
• Input deck for simulation will be created using Hypermesh 7.0
• Frontal impact simulation will be carried out using LS-DYNA
and post processing will be carried out using LS-POST
• Investigation of the analysis results in order to improve the
crashworthiness

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 Introduction
•Among all the accidents that take place, frontal impact has got a
major share of 40%. Again in these conditions the injury caused to
drivers or the front passenger is extremely high.
•In automotive domain more emphasis has been given to the safety
of passenger cars, but seldom the importance is given to passenger
bus.
•Though the damage due to frontal impact of the bus is lesser when
compared to other vehicles, the consequences of such impact on
drivers are fatal.
•According to the study during frontal impact of bus more than
80% of drivers die than any other members of the bus.
•In frontal impact scenario more significance should be given on
structural integrity, and hence this project work is carried out in this
direction.

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 Design
Bus Specifications:
Dimension (mm) (as per IS 9435) LPO 1510/55
Wheel base 5334
Front overhang 1775
Rear overhang 3200
Overall length 10309
Max. width 2375
Track front 1930
Track rear 2050
Min. ground clearance in mm 240-275
Max. Seating capacity 53

Weights (kg.)
Bare chassis kerb weight 4010
Max. G.V.W 12500
Permissible F.A.W. 5080
Permissible R.A.W. 10160
Fuel Tank Capacity 160 litres
Engine & subsystems 500
Powertrain 400
Drivetrain 300

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 Construction

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 Design

Material : Structural steel

Std. : IS 2062

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 Design
Geometric Modeling:
Geometric modeling has been carried out using Pro-E 2001 software. All the
geometric datas were collected from “KMS Coach Builders Pvt. Ltd.”
(Official partners of KSRTC for coach building). All the structural details
were as per the 2D drawings provided.

Various views of modeled bus is shown in following sections:

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 Design
Assumptions:

• Parts which are not directly related to the frontal impact or which have
no significant effect on the final output have not been considered.
• All the sub-systems that were discarded in design process have been
considered as lumped mass at appropriate locations.
• All structural designs are as per the documents obtained from KSRTC.

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 FE Model
Meshed bus with shell elements
and 1-D Beam Elements

Total Elements 264139

Shell Elements 260779
1D Elements 2963
Total Parts 105
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 FE Model
Parts replaced with Mass Element
Mass Elements

Rigid Elements

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 Boundary Conditions
Contact interface is done by defining the box and providing
*CONTACT_AUTOMATIC_SINGLE_SURFACE

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Boundary Conditions

Friction between tyres and rigid plane

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 Simulation Inputs
Material Properties assigned

Density Young’s modulus Poisson’s Yield Stress

Material
Kg/mm3 GPa Ration MPa
MAT_PIECEWISE_LINEAR_PLASTICITY
7.85e-6 210 0.3 350
MAT_24

MAT_RIGID 3.55e-6 210 0.3

MAT_ELASTIC 7.85e-6
210 0.3
MAT_1

Simulation Inputs

Velocity 30 km/hr
Simulation time 0.2 secs

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Simulation & Results

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Simulation & Results (contd.)

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Simulation & Results (contd.)

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Simulation & Results (contd.)

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Simulation & Results (contd.)

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Simulation & Results (contd.)

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 Design Improvement
Comparison of various crush initiators

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 Design Improvement
Comparison of bead type crush initiators

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Simulation & Results (contd.)

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Simulation & Results (contd.)

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 Simulation & Results (contd.)
Comparison of Load pattern with both designs

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 Conclusion

•It has been understood that the load distribution on the structures are not uniform,
which lays down the road to improvement in buckling characteristics of the
structures.

•By having crush initiators, the peak load can be reduced. This has been achieved by
implementing such designs to some of the structural members, which is around 4%
reduction in peak load.

•The design improvement that has been achieved is just for few structural elements,
if this approach is followed for many other key structural members then the design
could be far superior.

•The floor deceleration is around 12g, which is well in agreement with ECE R80
regulation that specifies the floor deceleration to be around 8-12g at 30km/hr.

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 Future Work

•In today’s automotive body engineering advancements there are various

systems that improves the crashworthiness of the vehicle significantly. Many
such systems can be implemented in order improve the structural safety.
•Simulation of the frontal impact behavior of the passenger bus can be carried
out by considering various subsystems of the vehicle like engines, transmission,
steering system etc..
•Positioning of dummy in the driver’s seat helps in finding the injury
parameters.
•Seat belt concept in passenger bus is an alien concept in India, efforts can be
made in developing such a concept.
•More understanding is required in order to improve the structural behavior of
chassis, which can be detrimental in overall design.

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 References
[1] VINCZE-PAP Sándor, CSISZÁR András, “Real and
Simulated Crashworthiness Tests on Buses” ESV 19th
Conference, NHTSA, Paper Number 05-023, 2005
[2] Jeffrey C. Elias, Lisa K. Sullivan, Linda B. McCray, “Large
School Bus Safety Restraint Evaluation” NHTSA, Paper No.
345, 2001
[3] Yoshiriro Sukegawa, Fujio Matsukawa, Takeshi Kuboike,
Motomu Oki, “Heavy Duty Vehicle Crash Test Method in
Japan”, NHTSA, Paper number 98-S4-O-13, 1998
[4] Mátyás Matolcsy, “Technical Questions Of Bus Safety
Bumpers”, NHTSA, Paper number 05-0161, 2005
[5] Willibrordus J. Witteman “Improved Vehicle Crashworthiness
Design by Control of the Energy Absorption for Different
Collision Situations”
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Thank You

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