Assessing the crashworthiness of a vehicle seat for rear and frontal impacts

Abstract A vehicle seat represents an automotive passive system because it limits the damage caused to passengers in the events of an accident or a crash. This way, the present work intends to evaluate the safety of an anchorage mechanism of a frontal vehicle driver seat considering two hazardous situations rear and frontal impacts. Performing a nonlinear FE in static and transient analyses provide the stress distribution in the main components of the mechanism, such as the inner track, the lock device and the bolts using Ansys®. Regulation Nº 17 from Un/ECE regulates the acceleration levels predicted in a crash test and therefore applied in the simulation. In addition, departing from a crash of 5g a fatigue analysis is carried out. From this particular analysis, it becomes possible to evaluate the actual safety of the vehicle seat after a minor crash.