Front crash simulation and design improvement of a pure electric vehicle

A finite element model is built for a pure electric vehicle (PEV) with battery mounted in the engine compartment. Front crash simulation is conducted using the built model with LS-DYNA according to FMVSS 305. The simulation result shows that battery acceleration and intrusion into the passenger cabin are so excessive that initial design needs to be improved. Hot forming steel is then applied to the longitudinal beam's extension part to prevent its crush defromation. Simulation result with the new design shows that the extension part's deformation is improved significantly. As a result, battery acceleration is reduced drastically and it's intrusion into the passenger cabin is zero, satisfying FMVSS 305. It is concluded that PEV's crashworthiness could be improved significantly through design process using hot forming steel, new design can provide much better mechanical integrity of the battery and reduced passenger cabin intrusion.