REAR SEAT DESIGN AND FRONTAL IMPACT SIMULATION TOOL

• US 20150370932A1
• Filed: 06/23/2014
• Published: 12/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Li, Guosong, Fu, Yan, Pline, Kevin, Weerappuli, Para Valentine
• Application Number:
  US14/311,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20150370932A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 22/023 Three-point seat belt systems comprising two side lower and one side upper anchoring devices B60R22/022, B60R22/03 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/10 Numerical modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

A system includes receiving a vehicle characteristic, a rear seatbelt characteristic, and an occupant characteristic and simulating a frontal impact based on the received characteristics. The method further includes determining, via a computing device, an optimal location of at least one component of a rear seatbelt based at least in part on the simulated frontal impact and whether at least one criterion is satisfied.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a vehicle characteristic, a rear seatbelt characteristic, and an occupant characteristic;

simulating a frontal impact based at least in part on the vehicle characteristic, the rear seatbelt characteristic, and the occupant characteristic; and

determining, via a computing device, an optimal location of at least one component of a rear seatbelt based at least in part on the simulated frontal impact and whether at least one criterion is satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing a result of the simulated frontal impact to the at least one criterion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rear seatbelt characteristic includes a location of at least one of an anchor hardpoint, a buckle hardpoint, and a D-ring hardpoint.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the rear seatbelt characteristic defines an attribute associated with a retractor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulated frontal impact includes a simulation of a vehicle rear seat during the frontal impact.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle characteristic includes at least one of a spacing between a rear seat and a front seat and a vehicle speed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle characteristic indicates whether a rear seat has an anti-submarining ramp.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the occupant characteristic includes a size of an occupant.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating trend data in accordance with the simulated frontal impact.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising displaying the trend data via a user interface device.

11. A system comprising:

a user interface device configured to receive a user input and present trend data, wherein the user input includes at least one of a vehicle characteristic, a rear seatbelt characteristic, and an occupant characteristic;

a processing device configured to simulate a vehicle frontal impact based at least in part on the vehicle characteristic, the rear seatbelt characteristic, and the occupant characteristic, wherein the processing device is configured to determine an optimal location of at least one component of a rear seatbelt based at least in part on the simulated frontal impact and whether at least one criterion is satisfied.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing device is configured to compare a result of the simulated frontal impact to the at least one criterion.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the rear seatbelt characteristic includes at least one of:

a location of at least one of an anchor hardpoint, a buckle hardpoint, and a D-ring hardpoint; and

an attribute associated with a retractor.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the simulated frontal impact includes a simulation of a vehicle rear seat during the frontal impact.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the vehicle characteristic includes at least one of a spacing between a rear seat and a front seat and a vehicle speed.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the vehicle characteristic indicates whether a rear seat has an anti-submarining ramp.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the occupant characteristic includes a size of an occupant.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing device is configured to generate trend data in accordance with the simulated frontal impact.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the user interface device is configured to display the trend data.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly embodying computer-executable instructions executable by a processor of a computing device to provide operations comprising:

receiving a vehicle characteristic, a rear seatbelt characteristic, and an occupant characteristic;

simulating a frontal impact based at least in part on the vehicle characteristic, the rear seatbelt characteristic, and the occupant characteristic; and

determining an optimal location of at least one component of a rear seatbelt based at least in part on the simulated frontal impact and whether at least one criterion is satisfied.