Perpustakaan Digital ITB

The number of passenger cars and trucks in Indonesia has increased steadily in recent years. This growth in the transportation sector has been accompanied by a notable rise in passenger cars and truck accidents. One type of accident between trucks and passenger cars is the rear-end collision, which can result in rear underrun accidents. A rear underrun protection device (RUPD) is installed at the rear of large trucks with high ground clearance to prevent underruns. However, studies have shown that many of the current RUPDs lack performance in preventing underrun. In this thesis, a parametric study will be done by varying the ground clearance, thickness, and support angle of an RUPD design based on previous studies. A finite element simulation of a passenger car with a Hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy in the driver seat will hit the RUPD at 56 km/h. The passenger's head, neck, and thoracic injury will be the main topic of this thesis. The RUPD's performance in preventing underrun and its effect on the occupants' response and injuries will be analyzed to determine whether the design is good enough. The results showed noticeable differences in the underrun distance between different geometry variations. In most cases, the RUPD prevented underrun and left sufficient distance to the passenger compartment. However, in some cases, the underrun distance was very large and would result in passenger compartment intrusion. There were no clear trends of the HIC15 for the ground clearance. On the other hand, the HIC15 value tends to increase as the thickness increases and decreases as the support angle increases. The HIC15 value is still far below the limit and can be considered safe in all cases. The Nij values have no clear trend in the ground clearance parametric study. The Nij value in the thickness variation showed a slight upward trend for thicknesses above 2.3 mm. The Nij value in the support angle variations also showed an upward trend as the support angle increased. All cases resulted in Nij values lower than the IARV limit except for the 2.3 mm thick RUPD. The CTI values showed no clear trends in the ground clearance and support angle parametric study. On the other hand, the thickness study showed increasing trends as the thickness increases. Overall, all cases resulted in varying CTI values. Some were above the IARV, while others were below the IARV.