The usage of crash-safety simulation software in the automotive industry

The last 10 years the safety issue for road vehicles has become increasingly important. Not only regulations but also NCAP testing force manufacturers to develop restraint systems which can meet the stringent criteria set by these procedures. Because of the various safety requirements the development of restraint systems has become very cost intensive. To reduce the costs the vehicle safety features are nowadays largely designed utilizing specific CAD/CAE software. The surge of this computer based development is, next to the cost aspects, due to the rapid development of computer hardware and software. By utilizing simulations, manufacturers can easily assess several crash conditions, without the effect of high costs and long lead-time accompanying crash experiments. Next to playing a major role in the current restraint system design the crash safety software is also used to look into the future. An extensive research effort is done to develop simulation models for humans to be used in a crash environment. Therefore several programs include specific features such as a muscle model, to be able to simulate human body parts. The current human body part models show encouraging results which helps us to believe that human modelling can be achieved in the future