Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Raj Jayachandran

James Chih Cheng

Tau Tyan

Saeed David Barbat

Leonard Anthony Shaner

Yu-Kan Hu

Irfan Sharif

Ching-Hung Chuang

Robert Ralph Armitage, Jr

Nial James Wykes

Wan-San Chiu

Senthilkumar Mahadevan

Yiping Xie

Yuan Wang

John Mardeusz

Fnu Mir Hamed Umar

A structure for a vehicle includes a body and an energy absorber assembly. The body extends in a transverse direction of the vehicle and is configured to be secured to a main body structure of the vehicle. The energy absorber assembly extends from the body. The energy absorber assembly also includes arcuate absorber elements configured to deform laterally upon impact in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle. When a vertical force is applied to the structure, the body is configured to inhibit deflection of the structure in a vertical direction.

Energy absorbing reinforcement structure for a vehicle

A strengthening structure of a vehicle is provided herein and includes a base having cutouts. Relief members are disposed across the base and each include a cross section having twelve or fourteen corners, a distal end, and an open proximal end in communication with a corresponding cutout.

Strengthening structure of a vehicle

A method for optimizing a twelve-cornered strengthening member comprises: modeling a vehicle assembly including a strengthening member having a twelve-cornered cross section; parameterizing a geometry of the strengthening member with a plurality of control parameters; defining a design of experiment using the plurality of control parameters; modeling a vehicle using the vehicle assembly; simulating a frontal impact event with the vehicle; generating a response surface based on the frontal impact event; and determining a set of optimized control parameters for the strengthening member based on the response surface.

Twelve-cornered strengthening member

According to one embodiment, the invention provides for a light truck including a frame with opposing longitudinal frame rails running along each side of the vehicle. The frame rails include at least a leading portion with vertical placement lowered and selected to substantially align with a passenger car energy management structure. In this embodiment, the vertical placement of the leading portion of the light truck frame rails is selected to direct impact energy to a passenger car longitudinal energy management structure, improving vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility in the event of a front longitudinal impact with a passenger car. The present invention also provides embodiments which increase the impact energy absorption capacity of a light truck by providing geometric softening of the frame rails and material softening of the frame rails.

Sport utility vehicle (SUV) frame architecture for improved vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility

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Canton, MI, United States of America

Raj Jayachandran