A comparison of the crash performance of three-spoke and four-spoke steering wheel armatures during impact loading

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A comparison of the crash performance of three-spoke and four-spoke steering wheel armatures during impact loading

Altenhof, W. / Arnold, B. / Li, Z. / Nabeta, O. / Turchi, R.

This research focuses on the crash performance of three-spoke and four-spoke aluminium steering wheel armatures using finite element methods. Finite element model verification was completed with a limited number of experimental tests investigating impacts between a rigid plate and both types of steering wheel armatures. An acceptable correlation between the experimental testing observations and numerical simulation results was observed which suggests that information obtained from finite element simulations can be used to assess the crashworthiness of the armatures during impact. Twenty-five numerical simulations were conducted for both the three-spoke and the four-spoke armature models under different impact conditions (investigating variations in the column angle and wheel angle). The simulations have shown that both steering wheel armatures absorb more energy under low wheel angles and the specific energy absorption for the four-spoke armature is generally higher than that of the three-spoke armature. These observations provide an understanding into the characteristics of energy management in crash situations for the two armature design.