A Numerical Investigation of a Novel Hood Design for Pedestrian Protection

Currently the use of new materials is becoming more prevalent in vehicle industry for the lightweight design purpose. The design of engine hood is very important for pedestrian safety during a vehicle-pedestrian accident. In order to improve the pedestrian protection performance of the new material engine hood, the radial stiffening rib structure and trapezium sandwich structure engine hoods were proposed in this paper, and an energy-absorbing structure is designed on the strengthening hinge plate to reduce the pedestrian head injury further more. The simulation results indicate that with new structures the new material engine hoods have more uniform rigidity and better energy absorbing ability, which would effectively reduce the engine hood intrusion and pedestrian head injuries.