Dynamic Behaviour Of Rear Underride Protection Device (Rupd) For Impact Loading

Rear side crash by cars behind medium or large-sized trucks accounts for a large number of mortalities and morbidities. Rear Underride Protection Devices (RUPDs), play a vital role in minimizing underrunning of any car along the rear side of a truck. Even in cars with 5-star safety rating, colliding with a truck of poorly designed RUPD results in a passenger compartment intrusion (PCI) more than the maximum allowable limit as per the American National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (ANHTSA) standards. The requirements of an acceptable RUPD are determined by regulation of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 223 and 224. In this paper, three new designs of RUPD made of mild steel were analyzed using ABAQUS software and compared with the control design which is available in most of the medium and large trucks. The simulation was carried out at a constant speed of 63km/hr at the time of impact. The experiments were carried out to estimate the ability to prevent severe injury in case of accidental collision of any car with rear side of the truck and to optimize the RUPD design. The results were examined against the necessities of FMVSS 223 and 224 in an attempt to considerably minimize the product’s development time and cost. The new design achieved the goal of decreasing the acceleration beyond the limits which is less than 60g where decreased by 79.227% and achieved zero passenger compartment intrusion and enhanced the energy absorption by 88.328%