Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Body shell
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-17
2001-03-20
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Body shell
C296S182100, C296S203010, C293S133000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06203098
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an automotive vehicle body structure, and in particular to an automotive vehicle body structure which can minimize the deceleration acting upon vehicle occupants at the time of a vehicle crash.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In recent years, various proposals have been made in regard to automotive vehicle body structures to maximize the protection of vehicle occupants at the time of a vehicle crash. For instance, proposals have been made to minimize the deceleration of the part of the vehicle body occupied by vehicle occupants by properly selecting the deformation of the remaining part of the vehicle body, and preventing the former part of the vehicle body from deforming (see Japanese patent laid open publication No. 7-101354, for instance).
When a vehicle occupant is restrained to the seat by a seat belt, the forward inertial force acting upon the vehicle occupant at the time of a vehicle crash starts rising only after the vehicle occupant is fully restrained by the seat belt. Because the seat belt inevitably has a certain resiliency, the deceleration acting on the vehicle occupant reaches a maximum level when the vehicle occupant is thrown forward, and the maximum elongation of the seat belt has occurred. The maximum level is higher as the forward movement of the vehicle occupant under the inertial force increases, and is known to substantially exceed the average deceleration of the vehicle body. Therefore, to minimize the impact which the vehicle occupant receives at the time of a vehicle crash, it is necessary to adjust the time history of the vehicle body deceleration so as to minimize the time delay in the rise in the deceleration of the vehicle occupant with respect to the deceleration of the vehicle body.
Accordingly, by conducting simulations, the inventors have discovered that, for a given deformation stroke of the vehicle body for absorbing the impact of a vehicle crash, the peak value of the deceleration of the vehicle occupant is smaller when the vehicle body deceleration is initially allowed to rise sharply and then gradually reduced to a constant value than when the vehicle body deceleration is kept constant from the early stage of the crash or allowed to rise only gradually.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of such problems of the prior art and the recognition by the inventors, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an automotive vehicle body structure which allows the peak deceleration acting upon a vehicle occupant at the time of a vehicle crash to be minimized for a given deformation stroke of the vehicle body.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which allows the deceleration acting upon the vehicle occupant at the time of a vehicle crash to be spread over time so as to minimize the peak deceleration acting upon the vehicle occupant.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which allows the peak deceleration acting upon the vehicle occupant to be minimized even though the size of the vehicle body is limited.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle occupant protection system which is simple in structure, and may consist of strictly passive elements.
According to the present invention, these and other objects can be accomplished by providing an automotive vehicle body structure, comprising a longitudinal member including a first portion and a second portion connected in series to provide a controlled reaction force at the time of a vehicle crash, characterized by that: the second portion is adapted to undergo a buckling or collapsing deformation whereby the second portion demonstrating a substantially higher deformation initiating load than a plastic deformation load; and the first portion is adapted to collapse at a deformation initiating load which is substantially lower than the deformation initiating load of the second portion, but substantially higher than the plastic deformation load of the second portion.
Thus, the time history of the reaction force can be adjusted by sequentially changing the deformation mode of the reaction force generating member from a collapsing deformation involving a relatively high reaction load to a buckling or a collapsing deformation which has a higher deformation initiating load than the reaction load produced by the first portion, but a substantially lower plastic deformation load. Therefore, the deceleration of the passenger compartment of the vehicle body can be sharply increased in an early phase of a vehicle crash, and, following an interval of a sharp decline, can be kept at a substantially constant level. In particular, if the first portion comprises a stress concentration portion for making the deformation initiating load of the first portion approximately equal to the average reaction load, the deformation initiating load can be reduced, and a constant reaction load can be produced substantially over the entire deformation stroke.
Typically, the first portion comprises a longitudinally extending hollow member which is adapted for a collapsing deformation through uniform creasing of walls thereof. The material preferably consists of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, but may consist of any other materials that demonstrate the required deformation properties. To lower the deformation initiating load of the first portion, and make it substantially equal to the plastic deformation load of the first portion, the first portion may be provided with a stress concentration portion.
The buckling or collapsing deformation of the second portion may be affected in any known arrangements. For instance, the second portion may likewise comprise a longitudinally extending hollow member which is adapted for a collapsing deformation through uniform creasing of walls thereof. alternatively, the second portion may comprise a pair of bifurcated beam sections which are adapted to bend away from each other by buckling under a compressive load, or a main beam section and an auxiliary beam section which guides a direction of a buckling deformation of the main beam section.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the longitudinal member comprises a side member extending from each side of an engine room to a lower part of a passenger compartment floor.
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Handa Kiyoshi
Motozawa Yasuki
Okamoto Masayoshi
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Pape Joseph D.
Patel Kiran B.
Skjerven Morrill & MacPherson LLP
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