Abstract: Structural crashworthiness was investigated for a passenger car-body to improve vehicle safety. The
auto-body structure was analyzed based on the force transmission path of frontal impact, with the auto-body
finite element model being built using the HyperWorks program and some key parts being improved including
the front side rail, front cross rail and crash box for a passenger car-body structure. Two front impacts were
numerically simulated using LS-DYNA program according to the crash regulation by China New Car Assessment
Program, CNCAP, in which one is full front impact with rigid barrier (RGB) and the other is 40% offset front
impact with offset deformable barrier (ODB). The results show that owing to car-body structure improvements,
the intrusion capacities obviously decrease with accelerations of both the left and right “B” pillars decreasing in
the two front impacts, and with increased impact energy absorption of 9.8 kJ for the 100% RGB and 3.3 kJ for
the 40% ODB.

Key words: vehicle safety, structural crashworthiness, force transmission path, passenger car-body, finite element method (FEM), offset deformable barrier (ODB)