Search Results (2)

A monopost seat is a novel, lightweight seat developed to utilize most of the interior space of vehicles. The space under the seat can be utilized by inserting a monopost columnar structure between a monopost seat rail and the floorboard. This design increases the perceived spaciousness of the vehicle and imparts passengers with a higher degree of freedom, because the seats can be adjusted more easily than standard seats. Meeting these requirements will require the seats to be sufficiently strong and sturdy in order to maintain passenger safety. Compared to traditional seats, it is more likely that a monopost seat will shift under the mass of the passenger, and these seats are more vulnerable to external vehicle collisions. Passenger safety is further compromised if an operational function is added. Therefore, further research on monopost seats is required. This study performed quasi-static and dynamic simulations to determine if the attachment of monopost seats to a vehicle meets international safety requirements in collision events. With a focus on clarifying the dynamic simulation process, the outcomes of quasi-static simulations were compared with the results obtained from dynamic simulations. Full article

This paper deals with an enhanced robust design optimization (RDO) method and its application to the strength design problem of seat belt anchorage, related to the front crash safety of multi-purpose vehicles. In order to determine the rational design safety of the newly developed automotive part, such as the seat, in which the reliability of the evaluation data is not sufficient at the design stage, it is necessary to implement a probabilistic design considering uncertainties. Thickness size variables of the seat frame structure’s members were considered random design variables, including uncertainties such as manufacturing tolerance, which are an inevitable hazard in the design of automotive parts. Probabilistic constraints were selected from the strength performances of the seat belt anchorage test, which are regulated in Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS), and the strength performances were evaluated by finite element analyses. The RDO problem was formulated such that the random design variables were determined by minimizing the seat frame weight subject to the probabilistic strength performance constraints evaluated from the reliability analyses. Three sigma level quality was considered for robustness in side constraints. The mean value reliability method (MVRM) and adaptive importance sampling method (AISM) were used for the reliability analyses in the RDO, and reliability probabilities from the MVRM and the AISM on the probabilistic optimum design were assessed by Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). The RDO results according to the reliability analysis methods were compared to determine the optimum design results. In the case of the RDO with the AISM, the structure reliability was fully satisfied for all the constraint functions, so the most reliable structural safety was guaranteed for the seat frame design. Full article