International Academic Journal of Information, Communication, Technology & Engineering

International
ISSN: 5741-2605 Academic
| Volume Journal
8, Issue of Information,
1 | Pages 104 -114 | Communication,
May, 2022 Technology & Engineering
Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal
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Frontal Car Crash Analysis Using Finite Element

Modelling: A Case Study of Toyota Corolla 2005 Model.
Orilonise, A. 1*, Muhammed, K. O.2, Woli, T. O. 3, Ibrahim, L. A. 4
1-4
Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal Polytechnic, Offa
*
Corresponding Author: E-mail address: [email protected]
Phone number: +234(0)8078222183

Abstract: This paper uses a finite element method to conduct a simulation of a car crash by
adopting explicit dynamic module. A Toyota corolla body frame was considered with body
structure made of aluminium. Only frontal impact on a stationary barrier is simulated. When the
car was modelled to crash into the barrier, different incoming speeds were taken into account.
The highest total deformation occurred when the car was modelled with incoming speed of
120Km h. The result of total deformation, directional deformation, equivalent stress and stress
intensity of the crash test from the ANSYS simulation is displayed below for easy understanding
of driver safety and crashworthiness.

Keywords: Crash test, Finite element method, crashworthiness, ANSYS, Total Deformation

Introduction
In the vehicle industry, one of the design issues is safety. As a result, a crash test is a
critical stage in validating automotive design. Cars designed to run on road are typically
made for movement of one to eight passengers rather than goods. Therefore, vehicle
manufactures have put a significant amount of money on vehicle structures. Because it
affects the welfare of drivers and passengers, in consideration of safety in vehicle
structure design. With time the focus of automobile safety technology has switched from
increasing the rigidity of the vehicle body (the thicker the sheet metal, the safer the
vehicle) to addition of bumpers on both end of the vehicle or creating a space for survival
(for example, building a vehicle body that deforms to absorb impact energy) (Cherng et
al., 2014). Countries have established safety rules, therefore automobiles must undergo
several crash test throughout the development stage to guarantee that safety regulations
are met before they can be sold for use. The high cost of experimental testing, on the
other hand, restricts the number of crash test that can be conducted, and as a result,
sufficient data may not be gathered. Numerical modelling and simulation, in addition to
experimental testing, have been widely utilized to research car crashes (Akshay et al.,
2012).
Byeong et al., 2012, performed crash analysis was performed of upper body and sub
frame for NEV electric car using LS-DYNA. NEV vehicle’s front platform assembly
behaviour when subjected to a frontal crash was described in the article. The analytical
model simulation result predicted that the steel vehicle body frame for electric vehicle
crash impact analysis performed upper body of the EV, and sub-frame comparative

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analysis of the anterior almost no change in power transfer as a result to the passenger
compartment, indicating that a significant strain was created.
An automobile crash analysis in non-linear transient dynamics was used in another study.
Frontal and sideways collision analyses are performed during the crash test to determine
the car’s deformations. FEA is used to test the crashworthiness of automotive
simulations. The chassis frame supports the weight of a heavy vehicle, and its purpose is
to safely carry the vehicle’s loads in all operating conditions. Different chassis
components and vehicle structures should be supported by the chassis frame should be
able to sustain both static and dynamic loads without distortion or deflection. On the
created model, the frontal and side crash situations are evaluated, and the total
deformations and stresses developed are calculated (Ananda 2012).
The computer simulation of an automobile crash study was done by Lin et at. 2014. They
looked at two crash scenarios: a fast automobile driving into a wall and a fast automobile
colliding into a stationary car. The goal of the study was to identify the probable sources
of harm to the driver and passengers in the car accidents, as well as to develop a bumper
model to determine its ability to sustain impact loads. Simulations on bumpers are carried
out to ensure that the bumper design compiles with safety regulations.
Andrew and Shaoping, 2017, used the finite element approach to simulate a ford explorer
2002 model crash in wall. Incoming speed of the car was varied and observation shows
different level of deformations. At a high speed of 100mph total deformation was
approximately 1.8meters, which wrecked the car. To minimize weight, most automobile
manufacturers use lightweight materials such as composites, aluminium, magnesium, or
new forms of high strength steels. In the event of rupture, which is a regular occurrence
during a car collision, these materials have limited strength or ductility. One of the
implications of material joining failure is vehicle crashwothiness (Sadhasivam and
Jayalakshmi 2014). In a car accident, the front-end of the vehicle absorbs a lot of the
impact and deforms plastically. The majority of the automobiles are designed to improve
absorption efficiency, as well as passenger safety and vehicle reliability (Sai et al., 2017).
In a minor collision, a vehicle is intended to provide appropriate protection to the driver
and passengers. Many new physical safety measures, including airbags, auto braking
system control brakes, and traction control are available to protect car occupants. The
accident response behaviour is a less visible aspect that drivers and passengers cannot
observe. The car body and numerous components in a well-designed automobile serve as
a protective barrier for the vehicle’s occupants. They function as a crumpling zone for
absorbing impact energy (Vamsi and Chandu, 2014).
In this paper, we digitally simulated a car slamming into a wall to better
comprehend the disastrous consequence of car collisions and to investigate the safety of
car occupants during impact on the frontal end structure of the car in a frontal hit. The
fundamental goal of an accident investigation is to predict how the vehicle will react in
the event of a collision. Vehicle body light weighing and crashworthiness are two
important factors to consider while designing a vehicle.
The simulation can also be used to assess the safety of driver and passengers, help reduce
cost of real case crash test and can be instrumental in the selection of material base on
strength. A frontal crash of a real life case of a vehicle moving at around 100Km h is
shown in figure 1 below

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Figure 1: - frontal crash of a vehicle at a speed around 100Km h (Patil and Patil, 2021)
Car body alone was examined in this research to keep things simple. The model of the car
in 3D form was generated using 3D modelling software SOLIDWORKS and the
imported to the FEM analysis software ANSYS. The ANSYS workbench software was
used mesh generation and also for the FEM analysis. We adopted Explicit Dynamic
module and speed of the car was varied 80Km h, 90Km h, 100Km h, 110Km h and
120Km h were selected for the crash analysis considering no difference in body
dimension and material selected for the body frame.

Methodology
The 3D design made in the SOLIDWORKS was done to be a lookalike of the actual real
life model of a car. The car under consideration for the purpose of this study is a 2005
Toyota Corolla model. The dimension of the car designed in Design Modeller was
approximately same in width, length and height of the actual Toyota Corolla – keeping in
mind only the body frame was designed. The car frame material was set as aluminium
alloy and the barrier set as structural steel used in construction of bridges.
The next procedure was the mesh generation in ANSYS – which is the adopted software
for this crash simulation. A tetrahedral mesh was generated on the car as shown in figure
below. The finer the details the more nodes and element thus resulting to a better
approximations. The model created was generated as a single body, this is to ease the
operation of the computer during meshing and solution solving. The number of elements
and nodes in the analysis are 24195 and 9500 respectively. The material of the car body
is unchanged when varying the speed as well as the barrier material and position.
Directional stress, strain and total deformation due to crash of the frontal surface on the
barrier is the basis of the result analysis shown below.

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Figure 2:- Mesh generation of the car body

Result and discussion
As stated above the speed varies from 80Km h, 90Km h, 100Km h, 110Km h and
120Km h, Table 1 below shows the total deformation, equivalent stress, directional
deformation and stress intensity at various speeds due to impact on the barrier. The
profile of the total deformation and equivalent stress distribution of the car after impact is
also shown in the figure 3 – 6 below. As seen in the Table, the maximum total
deformation occurs in the highest speed which 11.2950 × 10 meters toward the driver
and passenger in the vehicle as simulated in split seconds.
Table 1: Average and Maximum value of total deformation, directional deformation,
equivalent stress and stress intensity at various car speeds.
Car Total deformation Directional Equivalent stress Stress intensity
𝟐
speed(𝑲𝒎⁄𝒉) × 𝟏𝟎 (𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬) deformation × × 𝟏𝟎𝟗 (𝐩𝐚) × 𝟏𝟎𝟗 (𝐩𝐚)
𝟏𝟎 𝟑 (𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬)
average max average max average max average max
80 3.4806 7.3802 -0.01448 7.0407 0.11305 1.2762 0.1207 1.2970
90 3.9752 8.3906 -0.02911 8.2253 0.1260 1.4538 0.1346 1.4811
100 4.4696 9.3890 -0.0299 9.5364 0.1388 1.6489 0.1482 1.6820
110 4.9487 10.3740 -0.2208 11.3610 0.1523 1.8430 0.1627 1.8807
120 5.4029 11.2950 0.0005 12.2900 0.1672 2.0592 0.1786 2.0999

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90km/hr
80km/hr

100km/hr 110km/hr

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120km/hr
Figure 3: - Picture showing total deformation of car at 80Km h, 90Km h, 100Km h,
110Km h and 120Km h respectively.

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 International Academic Journal of Information, Communication, Technology & Engineering

Figure 4: - Pictures showing directional deformation of car at 80Km h, 90Km h, 100Km h,

110Km h and 120Km h respectively.

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Figure 5: - Pictures showing equivalent stress of car at 80Km h, 90Km h, 100Km h, 110Km h and
120Km h respectively.

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International Academic Journal of Information, Communication, Technology & Engineering

80km/hr 90km/hr

100km/hr
110km/hr

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 International Academic Journal of Information, Communication, Technology & Engineering

120km/hr
Figure 6: - Pictures showing stress intensity of car at 80Km h, 90Km h, 100Km h, 110Km h and
120Km h respectively.

When comparing the visual deformation between the simulation and what might happen
in a real life there might be discrepancies. One of the major causes is the time of
simulation and difference in car dimension. However, it is not expected that SUV would
deform same way as smaller cars. A probable explanation for this occurrence is that the
simulation only employed the automobile’s frame – not including the chassis, engine and
interiors as the real life test will (Praveen and Sandeep, 2018).
Conclusion
For years, automobile companies have been using numerical modelling and simulation to
simulate car crashes. FEM analysis can produce realistic result to assist engineers
understand how different crash situations affect vehicles. Simulation automobile crash
using software like ANSYS is far more cost effective than performing real-life scenarios.
The results of the simulations were validated comparing to Andrew and Shaoping, 2017
crash test conducted on ford explorer. Although dimensions differ but it can be observed
that the frontal has the most total deformation distribution. Due to limited resources of
computer available a simpler model was chosen and the crash initiation time was in
millisecond. A more exact model would be necessary for a more accurate outcome, but
the computer resources required for the simulations would be significantly greater. As a
result, a compromise had to be established so that the simulation could be run without too
much deviation in the results.

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