Finite Element Analysis of Rear Under-Run Protection Device (RUPD) for Impact Loading

–Under-running of passenger vehicles is one of the important parameters to be considered during design and development of truck chassis. Rear Under-run Protection Device (RUPD) plays an important role in avoiding under-running of vehicles from rear side of a truck. In India, the legal requirements of a RUPD are fixed in regulation IS 14812-2005. To reduce number of iterations during the development process, the computational simulation method is used in RUPD analysis for impact loading. An explicit finite element code like Ls-Dyna is used for the simulation. The deformation of RUPD bar and plastic strains in RUPD components can be determined before the physical test for predicting failure of the system to meet the compliance requirements as per IS 14812-2005. Additionally, failure of the RUPD attachment points with chassis can be determined. Physical testing can be reduced significantly with this approach which ultimately reduces the total cycle time as well as the cost involved in product development. This paper explains the FE analysis of RUPD for impact loading. All the results obtained from the CAE analysis are evaluated against the requirements of IS 14812-2005 which could reduce the process development time and cost involved in the same. Keywords––Rear Under-run Protection Device (RUPD), IS 14812 -2005, Chassis design, ECE R58, Heavy Vehicle Systems