Patent Grant
9296431
It is desirable to manage forces applied to the vehicle, e.g. in a rear impact, to avoid certain vehicle components, such as those associated with the fuel system and proximate to and within the vehicle occupant cabin. However, packaging constraints and other design considerations, such as weight efficient architectures to improve fuel efficiency, limit the design space and use of conventional reinforcements. Accordingly, improving energy management within current design space and performance parameters is desirable, but currently challenging.
Referring also to
In a rear portion 70 of the rear passenger cabin 14 of the vehicle 10, a door aperture 72 is defined by the unibody structural assembly 12. In a forward portion 80 of the quarter panel region 16 of the vehicle 10, the unibody structural assembly 12 supports a fuel filler assembly 82 for the vehicle 10. According to the principles of the present disclosure, the upper body structural brace 50 may inhibit impact forces from excessively straining, deforming, or otherwise impinging upon the door aperture 72 and the fuel filler assembly 82. That is, when the first, second and third members 52, 54, 56 transfer forces, such as from impact force FA, to the bottom frame component 34 and the roof rail 40, such forces are transferred around particular interior regions or portions of the vehicle 10, such as the rear portion 70 of the rear passenger cabin 14 and the forward portion 80 of the quarter panel region 16, so that the configuration of components extending therein, such as the door aperture 72 and the fuel filler assembly 82, may be maintained within acceptable levels of, e.g., deformation and strain. For example, in certain applications, and under certain conditions of the vehicle 10 requiring energy absorption, e.g. an impact with another vehicle at the rear of the vehicle 10, a target for deformation of the door aperture 72 is within 1 inch. In another example, in certain applications, and under certain conditions of the vehicle 10 requiring energy absorption, e.g. an impact with another vehicle at the rear of the vehicle 10, targets may be that the fuel filler assembly 82 is not deformed at all, and is under no greater than 10% strain.
According to the principles of the present disclosure, in a rear impact on the vehicle 10 in which impact forces FA and FB are applied, the unibody structural assembly 12, including the upper body structural brace 50, operates to transfer substantially 60% of the impact forces FA and FB to the bottom frame component 34. Referring to
It should be understood that the unibody structural assembly 12 of the vehicle 10 may include further components in a substantially mirrored configuration on the opposing lateral side thereof (not shown). That is, while a first side of the vehicle 10 is illustrated in
In the drawings, the same reference numbers indicate the same elements. Further, some or all of these elements could be changed. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many embodiments and applications other than the examples provided would be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the above description. The scope of the invention should be determined, not with reference to the above description, but should instead be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It should be understood that, as used herein, exemplary refers to serving as an illustration or specimen, illustrative, or typical. It is anticipated and intended that future developments will occur in the arts discussed herein, and that the disclosed systems and methods will be incorporated into such future embodiments. In sum, it should be understood that the invention is capable of modification and variation and is limited only by the following claims.
All terms used in the claims are intended to be given their broadest reasonable constructions and their ordinary meanings as understood by those skilled in the art unless an explicit indication to the contrary in made herein. In particular, use of the singular articles such as “a,” “the,” “said,” etc. should be read to recite one or more of the indicated elements unless a claim recites an explicit limitation to the contrary.
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