Reduction of epistemic uncertainty of a crash box model - experimental and numerical investigations

Abstract The high prediction accuracy of FEM calculations is an important prerequisite for their growing use in the field of crash load cases for vehicle body design. Although the simulation accuracy of crash calculations for steel structures already is at a high standard, continuous improvements and a further development of the simulation models are crucial in the field of vehicle design. Existing studies on the simulation accuracy for steel structures under crash load focus on the deformation behaviour of idealized component-like structures. These studies do not allow for conclusions on the simulation accuracy of crash calculations based on vehicle-related components with increased geometric complexity as well as with different material combinations, joining techniques and bead structures. This was the reason for conducting the experimental and numerical investigations on crash boxes outlined in this paper. The goal was to investigate whether the FE code is capable of increasing the accuracy of the simulation of the experimental results by considering the information obtained from technical measurements.