Virtual Crash Cost

[Twyla Plack]

Thepredictive capabilities of FEA allow engineers to fully understand a crash event in a virtual environment, thus limiting the number of physical tests that need to be executed and saving millions of dollars of development costs that can be diverted to improving safety design for all occupants.

No company better understands the relationship of the physical crash event and the digital twin mirroring these results. Humanetics has worked with OEMs, biomechanical engineers, and the crash safety CAE community since 1995 to produce innovative virtual crash test dummies. Humanetics is the only company in the world that has a full portfolio of both the physical dummies as well as their numerical counterparts. The synergy between these product lines guarantees that our models are of the highest quality and most user-friendly. Through our physical dummy designs and testing, we have direct access to complex geometry and material data. Our research and development involved in the manufacturing of physical crash test dummies feeds directly into our models, resulting in the highest level of data reliability, reproducibility and fidelity.

In 2010 in the US there were 32,788 automobile-related deaths, the lowest number since 1949. The decline is due in large part to major engineering improvements in vehicle design and safety systems. The unsung hero in all this is the crash test dummy.

A $200,000 physical crash dummy, wired up with sensors, is a realistic true-to-life stand-in for a real human in a car crash. A dummy can only be used a few times, so manufacturers have turned to realistic crash test dummy simulation by creating computer crash dummy models. Real-world crash test data is designed into the behavior of these virtual dummies, which can then be crashed many times as the engineers desire, at far less cost than a single physical test.

WorldSID is a 50th Percentile Male designed biofidelity (true-to-life) in automotive crash simulation. The model is representative of the average male in terms of height, mass, and proportion. Various improvements to the dummy design over previous side impact crash dummies, such as incorporation of Nitinol material in the rib cage region, lead to improved biofidelity of WorldSID 2.0 and its ability to simulate side-impact injury.

German car manufacturers Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, and Volkswagen founded the Partnership for Dummy Technology and Biomechanics (PDB) in 2002 as a cooperative venture to combine their specialized knowledge in crash test dummy technology, biomechanics and simulation in order to achieve high standards of occupant protection.

Virtual crash simulation is becoming more prevalent in replacing physical crash testing for regulatory certification because of its enhanced accuracy, lifelike human body models, and the capability to digitally predict intricate scenarios. This shift reduces the need for hardware prototypes and testing in product development, fostering financial sustainability, and minimizing carbon emissions in new business models.

Airbag development poses significant challenges in the field of vehicle safety engineering due to the intricate and non-linear nature of airbag folding and deployment across a wide range of crash scenarios. These challenges are further compounded by the ever-evolving and increasingly stringent safety certification requirements.

VPS offers a robust and efficient simulation platform that allows for end-to-end airbag development, covering both folding and deployment aspects. Its distinctive technology enables precise simulation of gas flow throughout all stages of airbag development, enabling an accurate evaluation of the interactions between gas and airbag materials.

As electric vehicles emerge in the market, battery safety has become a crucial certification requirement. Suppliers and OEMs must demonstrate compliance with ever-changing safety standards and ensure strong performance in terms of range. Yet, predicting and achieving these outcomes during the early stages of development, within tighter deadlines and the demand for environmentally friendly processes, significantly amplifies the complexity of this task.

Battery manufacturers and OEMs use VPS to achieve regulatory certification, enhance battery safety, and reduce costs through comprehensive assessment, covering micro-scale cell analysis to macro-scale full-car crash scenarios.

As lightweighting and new materials usage rise, assessing misuse damage and reliability becomes crucial while maintaining cost-effectiveness. Virtual in-operation tryouts enable a vast range of simulated tests, identifying flaws early, saving time and resources, and achieving the optimal design quickly.

The benefits of a virtual dummy are multifaceted. It can be subjected to countless crash scenarios without needing to be repaired, whereas traditional dummies have limited life spans and cost upward of $100,000 each. Crash tests that occur entirely inside a computer cost nearly nothing. A virtual dummy can be easily modified to represent a range of body types, while traditional dummies come in only three standard varieties: man, woman and child.

Structural design and safety systems protect vehicle occupants in the event of a crash. But only independent crash tests under controlled conditions can differentiate one car from another and determine just how well a car performs under crash conditions.

As part of its New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) in the US, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) scores cars using a scale of one to five stars; the higher the number of stars, the lesser the likelihood of injury or death. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) uses a four-level scale: Poor, Marginal, Acceptable, and Good. In Europe, China and Latin America, NCAP also scores cars on a scale of one to five stars. But in the face of virtual simulation, these traditional crash testing methods may be under threat of going the way of so many other traditions.

While the world of vehicle safety engineering may not be ready to give up the crash test dummy in favour of the human computer model just yet, much work is being done in this area. Dr. Christophe Bastien, Principle Lecturer in Engineer Simulations at Coventry University in the UK spoke to Megatrends about the potential for the future crash test dummy to lie in the virtual rather than the physical world.

By incorporating Ansys' industry-leading crash simulation software, NASCAR significantly cut costs and accelerated the validation testing necessary to launch Next Gen in time for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season

PITTSBURGH, July 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASCAR used Ansys' (NASDAQ: ANSS) simulation solutions to ensure the safety of its Next Gen race car in time for the 2022 season with virtual crash tests that accelerated validation time and reduced material costs for physical testing by $1 million. The crash simulations allowed NASCAR to overcome pandemic-induced physical testing challenges and meet its goal to debut the car in February at the Daytona 500 motor race, the 500-mile season-opener considered the most prestigious and important race in NASCAR.

"Ansys LS-DYNA was an important tool in getting the Next Gen car ready for the 2022 season," said John Probst, senior vice president of Racing Innovation at NASCAR. "The ability to simulate crash tests with highly-reliable results helped us work through the pandemic and prepared us for our physical crash tests."

NASCAR, working together with Elemance, LLC, performed the engineering and simulation work leveraging the software's built-in design optimization tools to enhance the crash performance of the front and rear bumpers via simulation.

"Ansys' crash simulation software provides a unique opportunity to safely analyze, test, and visualize an extensive amount of variables and conditions with confidence and precision," said Walt Hearn, vice president of global sales and customer excellence at Ansys. "In addition to increasing safety, virtual testing significantly reduces development and validation time as well as material costs. We are proud that our simulation solutions supported NASCAR in each of these areas and helped get Next Gen ready to race for the 2022 season."

When visionary companies need to know how their world-changing ideas will perform, they close the gap between design and reality with Ansys simulation. For more than 50 years, Ansys software has enabled innovators across industries to push boundaries by using the predictive power of simulation. From sustainable transportation to advanced semiconductors, from satellite systems to life-saving medical devices, the next great leaps in human advancement will be powered by Ansys.

Ansys and any and all ANSYS, Inc. brand, product, service and feature names, logos and slogans are registered trademarks or trademarks of ANSYS, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States or other countries. All other brand, product, service and feature names or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

In the past few decades, vehicles have become increasingly safer, with fewer crash deaths and injuries (Kahane 2013). This is due, in part, to stricter safety regulations and technological advances in automobile safety features, such as increased safety belt use and advanced air bag installation. However, there remains a stark disparity in vehicle crash deaths and injuries when comparing male and female drivers involved in similar vehicle accidents.

Men drive more miles, are involved in more vehicle crashes, and are more likely to engage in risky behavior while driving compared to women, yet women are about 13-20% more likely to be killed than men in similar motor accidents (IIHS 2021).

These disparities in vehicle crash safety outcomes are not adequately addressed in present-day vehicle safety testing requirements. Crash testing currently uses 50th percentile male dummies (171 lb, 5ft 9in) but only 5th percentile female dummies (108 lb, 4ft 11in) to represent adult vehicle occupants (NHTSA 2021). Additionally, female dummies are scaled-down versions of male dummies and do not account for sex differences in mass distribution, muscle and ligament strength, and bone structure and density (Linder & Svedberg 2019). Female crash test dummies do not represent average female vehicle occupants, which leads to inaccurate crash test data collection and inadequate safety features. For example, due to differences in neck musculature, women are about twice as likely to suffer from whiplash injuries than men. As a result, whiplash protection seats designed in response to crash test results are more effective for men than women (Linder & Svedberg 2019).

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