Footrest design optimization of a small vehicle to improve ANCAP lower leg injury

호주 신차안전도평가의 하부다리 상해치 개선을 위한 경차의 Footrest 형상 최적화

In order to protect occupant during car crash accident, Regulation and NCAP(New Car assessment Program) have been developed among various countries like U.S.A., Europe, Korea and Australia. Especially NCAP scores affect to sales of vehicles. So vehicle makers are trying to get good score in NCAP. Low leg injuries play an important role in Australia and Euro NCAP and these injuries are related with footrest design. Optimization of footrest design in early stage of vehicle development is necessary to obtain better and robust results of low legs during crash tests. In this paper, DFSS method and finite element model were used to optimize the low leg performance in small RHD vehicles. Compared with the lower leg injury of base model, the lower leg injury of proposed model was slightly improved and robustness was enhanced also.