The Effect of Diaphragms in Continuous Sill Member on the Strength of Automotive B-Pillar

The competing factors in automotive engineering design may be divided into four main categories: cost, performance, safety, and fuel economy. All four are related by vehicle weight considerations. As far as cost is concerned, heavy vehicle weight is a waste of money, but, if overall volume is not to be reduced, reducing vehicle weight can be more expensive. Lighter vehicles have better fuel efficiency. Furthermore, in improving the safety of passengers in collision, it will be of benefit to decrease the load that occurs during the collision. The paper discusses the knowledge on the behaviour of T-frame structure under specific loading will be obtained by experimental methods in order to investigate the deflection of the vehicle B-pillar or T-frame structure. In addition, a series of Tframe structure as designed with inner diaphragms at various locations in the sill member in order to investigate the effect of inner diaphragm and continuous sill member. Finite element analysis and experimental test were carried out on the in-plane bending. The results from both methods are compared and examined