Design for Safety of Complex Structural Systems: Crashworthiness and Survivability

这笔拨款为开发一种基于计算机的方法提供资金，用于设计和优化复杂结构系统，以提高安全性，增强耐撞性，以及在发生碰撞时的生存能力。特别强调的是设计的演变和优化，从最初的概念阶段，到后期的详细设计阶段。基于计算机的模型将允许在设计过程的不同阶段对结构系统的性能进行评估和优化，包括概念阶段，以及在不同层次的设计细节中表示不同组件的阶段。基于小波的多尺度分析将提供数学框架，允许在不同分辨率水平上对同一系统的模型进行映射。算法将适应已经在工业实践中使用的相当丰富的组件模型子集，例如，商业上可用的有限元模型。优化算法将被开发来处理结构设计中的一些特殊的安全问题，如大量的设计变量、非光滑函数和计算上非常昂贵的函数评估。这项工作最明显的应用将是在汽车和飞机工业。如果成功，这项工作将导致改进车辆的设计，以加强对乘客和货物的保护。在这项资助下开发的方法和工具将使工程师更好地了解事故发生时的能量管理过程，并提供新的计算机模型和算法，以促进在整个事故序列中为居住者提供宜居空间的结构设计过程。

This grant provides funding to develop a computer-based methodology for design and optimization of complex structural systems for safety, enhanced crash-worthiness, and survivability in the event of a crash. Special emphasis is placed on the evolution and optimization of the design, from the initial, conceptual stages, to later stages of detailed design. The computer-based model will allow the assessment and optimization of the performance of a structural system across different stages of the design process, including conceptual stages, and stages where different components are represented in different levels of design detail. A wavelet-based multi-scale analysis will provide the mathematical framework that allows the mapping of models of the same system across different levels of resolution. Algorithms will accommodate a reasonably rich subset of the component models already in use in industrial practice, for example, commercially available finite element models. Optimization algorithms will be developed to deal with some of the peculiar features of structural design for safety problems such as a large number of design variables, non-smooth functions, and computationally very costly function evaluations.The most obvious applications of this work will be in automotive and aircraft industries. If successful this work will lead to improvements in the design of vehicles for enhanced passenger and cargo protection. The methods and tools developed under this grant will provide engineers with a better understanding of the process of energy management in the event of a crash and with new computer models and algorithms to facilitate the process of designing structures where a livable volume is provided for the occupants throughout a crash sequence.