Underbody OR Lower Body Structure:

Automobile underbody structure:

Reference:
1- floor panel (This floor panel 1 generally comprises a front floor portion 2)
2- front floor portion
3- rear kick-up portion
4- a rear floor portion 4 extending rearward from an upper end of the rear kick-up portion 3
5- lower end of a dash panel
6- tunnel region (front end (frontward opening) connected to the dash panel, and a rear end (rearward opening)
connected to the rear kick-up)
7- Side-sills (Extending longitudinally and serving as a strength member.)
8- A fuel tank
9- Expanded downward to form a storage region capable of storing a spare tire or the like therein.
10- floor frames (is arranged to be located between the tunnel region 6 and an adjacent one of the side-sills 7 in the
lateral direction of an automobile body)
11- laterally-spaced front frames
12- A torque box (serving as a strength member.)
15, 16- Two sets of longitudinally-spaced cross members
17-A pair of laterally-spaced rear frames
18-Third cross member
FIG. 1 is a top plan view of an automobile underbody structure according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 2-2 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an arrangement of strength members, such as a floor frame, a cross member, a side-
sill and a rear frame, in FIG. 1.



FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a connected state of the floor frame, the cross member and a front floor portion.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a junction relationship of the floor frame, the cross member relative and a front floor
portion, taken along the line 5-5 in FIG. 6.





FIG. 6 is a fragmentary top view showing an intersecting area between the floor frame and the cross member.
FIG. 7 is a fragmentary perspective bottom view showing the intersecting area between the floor frame and the cross
member, wherein the front floor portion is omitted.







FIG. 8 is an explanatory exploded perspective view of a junction relationship of front and rear portions of the floor frame.
FIG. 9 is a side view showing a junction region between the front and rear portions of the floor frame.
FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing a positional relationship of the cross member and the front and rear portions of the
floor frame, and a junction relationship thereof, taken along the line 10-10 in FIG. 7





FIG. 11 is a fragmentary top plan view showing an automobile underbody structure according to another embodiment of
the present invention.
FIG. 12 is a sectional view taken along the line 12-12 in FIG. 11.








FIG. 13 is a top plan view of a connection member illustrated in FIG. 11.
FIG. 14 is a sectional view taken along the line 14-14 in FIG. 13.
FIG. 15 is a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 12, which shows an automobile underbody structure according to yet
another embodiment of the present invention.




FIG. 16 is a top plan view corresponding to FIG. 1, which shows an automobile underbody structure according to still
another embodiment of the present invention.




FIG. 17 is a sectional view taken along the line 17-17 in FIG. 16.





FIG. 18 is a perspective bottom view showing the detail of the vicinity of a rear end region of a floor frame.
FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing one example of an arch-shaped cross member.




FIG. 20 is a sectional view taken along the line 20-20 in FIG. 18.
FIG. 21 is a sectional view taken along the line 21-21 in FIG. 18.







FIG. 22 is a sectional view taken along the line 22-22 in FIG. 18.
FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram of a transmission mode of a rearward load to a fourth cross member.








LOWER BODY ASSEMBLY
Lower body assembly consists of following sub-assemblies.
Lower structure front end assembly
Front floor assembly
Rear floor assembly

Lower structure front end assembly




Tunnel dash interface panel
Dash panel reinforcement
Brackets








Dash panel reinforcement
subassembly
Dash panel
Upper cowl
Inner cowl
Lower cowl




Shock tower
Shock tower reinforcement
Front rail upper
Upper engine mount
Lower front
Rail to rocker
Front rail inner
Lower front rail
Radiator support
Front Floor Assembly










Floor Panel
Tunnel


Tunnel cross members
Seat cross members front
Support bracket
Rear Floor Assembly








Waterfall panel
Rear seat panel
Rear Rail
Gas tank
Mounts
Rear cargo floor
Rear tunnel cross
Rear Cross member

Lower body assembly


Material and Material Properties Used
The used abbreviations for the different steels are as follows:
BH Bake Hardening
CP Phase
DP Dual Phase
HF Hot Formed
HSLA High Strength Low Alloy
MS Martensitic
S Stainless











Crash Analysis:
Crash Analysis Model

The LS-DYNA complete full model had 178386 elements and 174532 nodes.The vehicle mass was defined to be base
curb weight plus two 50th percentile maledummies with 113 kg of luggage. The crash mass of the vehicle was set at
1612 kg. The crash mass of the vehicle is calculated as follows:

For three crash types of the ULSAB project, one common crash model was generated. With this model the crash
simulations were conducted:
AMS 50% frontal offset crash at 55 km/h (AMS- Auto Motor Sport)
NCAP 100% frontal crash FMVSS 208 at 35 mph (New Car Assessment Programme)
Side impact crash at 50 km/h (96/27 EG with deformable barrier)
AMS Offset Crash
The initial velocity for the car is 55 km/h for the AMS crash.The Offset barrier is a block with a 15 degree rotated contact
area including two anti-slide devices mounted on the contact surface. The left side of the car hits the barrier with an
overlap of 50%.









NCAP 100% Frontal Crash:
The test sequence of the front crash analysis is set up to duplicate a 35 mph.












Rear Crash:
The rear crash barrier is a rigid body with a mass of 1830 kg, making contact at zero degrees relative to the stationary
vehicle. The Federal Standard identifies that the velocity of the rear moving barrier is 35 mph.For the rear crash a half
structure model is used.







Side Impact Analysis:
The velocity of the side moving barrier at time of impact is designated to be 50 km/h.