FR3069834A1 - SIDE STRUCTURE OF VEHICLE BODYWORK - Google Patents

Abstract

A vehicle body side structure (100) comprising a side member (110) arranged on an outer side, in a vehicle width direction, a power train mounting compartment, a wing apron (120) forming part a suspension turret (106) and connected to the side member, and a reinforcement (150) attached to the wing deck including a sidewall portion (122) extending toward a vehicle front side from a panel an edge (108), a curved portion (124) to an outer side, in a width direction, from the side wall portion, and a front wall portion (126) extending to an outer side, in a direction width, since the curved portion. The reinforcement is arranged on both sides of the center of the deck in a vertical direction and overlaps the curved portion.

Description

SIDE STRUCTURE OF VEHICLE BODY

The present invention relates to a lateral structure of a vehicle body.

In the front portion of a vehicle, a vehicle interior and a powertrain mounting compartment (an engine compartment in the case of a motor car) are separated by a dashboard. A lateral member extending in a front-rear direction of the vehicle is arranged on a lateral side of the powertrain mounting compartment (cf. patent document 1 for example). A turret to which a suspension is suspended is arranged above the lateral member.

Patent document 1: Japanese patent open publication No. 2014240243.

When loads are applied during a collision against a front surface, the lateral member undergoes deformation and thus performs a load-absorbing function. Therefore, the amount of interference between the dashboard and the components inside the powertrain mounting compartment during the collision with a front surface is suppressed and the amount of backward movement of the dashboard. Inward edge of the vehicle is reduced, which improves passenger protection.

In some cases, due to the design and structure of a vehicle, the lateral member has a shape which extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle and is inclined downwards extending towards the side rear of the vehicle. When loads are applied to the side member having such a shape during a collision against a front surface, the loads can be transferred to the turret (which is referred to below as a suspension turret) and cause a deformation of the suspension turret. If the suspension turret is deformed, the lateral member rotates around its rear end as a starting point so that its front end rises. In this case, a deformation of the lateral member is suppressed, but there is a risk that sufficient load-absorbing performance cannot be obtained.

To resolve this, when the lateral member has a shape extending in the front-rear direction of the vehicle and is inclined downward extending towards the rear side of the vehicle, the rotation of the lateral member is suppressed by providing a load path under the lateral organ in a conventional case. However, the use of such a technique increases the weight and cost of the vehicle. There is therefore a need to develop another technique.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention provides a lateral structure of a vehicle body with which the rotation of the lateral member caused by loads applied during a collision against a front surface can be suppressed without increasing the weight and cost of the vehicle, and great load-bearing and passenger protection performance can be achieved.

To solve the above-mentioned problems, a lateral vehicle body structure according to the present invention having a typical configuration is a lateral vehicle body structure comprising: a lateral member which is arranged on an exterior side, with respect to a width direction of vehicle, from a powertrain mounting compartment of a vehicle, extends in a front-rear direction of the vehicle, and is inclined downwardly extending toward a rear side of the vehicle; a wing apron which is provided vertical on an outer side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, of the lateral member forms part of a suspension turret, and is directly or indirectly connected to the lateral member; and a brace which is attached to the wing apron, in which the wing apron comprises a side wall portion extending towards a front side of the vehicle from a dashboard separating the powertrain mounting compartment and an interior vehicle, a curved portion which is curved towards an outside side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, from the side wall portion, and a front wall portion extending towards an outside side, with respect to a direction vehicle width, from the curved portion, and the reinforcement is attached to a position at which it is arranged on both sides of the center of the wing apron in a vertical direction and overlaps the curved portion.

With the present invention, it is possible to provide a lateral structure of a vehicle body with which the rotation of the lateral member caused by loads applied during a collision against a front surface can be suppressed without increasing the weight and the vehicle cost, and great load-absorbing and passenger protection performance can be achieved.

In preferred embodiments of the invention, it is also possible to have recourse to one and / or the other of the following provisions:

the curved portion of the wing apron and the reinforcement form an integral closed cross section;

the lateral structure of the vehicle body further comprises: a front extension which overlaps the front wall portion of the wing apron and forms a transverse section closed integrally with the front wall portion, in which a portion of the reinforcement overlaps the extension forward through the wing apron;

the lateral structure of the vehicle body further comprises: an upper suspension support forming part of an upper wall of the suspension turret, in which the upper suspension support is joined to the dashboard, and the reinforcement is separated from the support upper suspension; the reinforcement is separated from the lateral member.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is an overall view of a side structure of a vehicle body according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the lateral structure of the vehicle body shown in FIG. 1 in a diagonal view from below;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the lateral structure of the vehicle body shown in FIG. 2 in a diagonal view from above on the interior side of the vehicle;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the lateral structure of the vehicle body taken along the line A-A of FIG. 3.

A lateral structure of a vehicle body according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises: a lateral member which is arranged on an exterior side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, of a powertrain mounting compartment a vehicle, extends in a front-rear direction of the vehicle, and is inclined downwardly extending towards a rear side of the vehicle; a wing apron which is provided vertical on an outer side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, of the lateral member forms part of a suspension turret, and is directly or indirectly connected to the lateral member; and a brace which is attached to the wing apron, wherein the wing apron includes a side wall portion extending to a front side of the vehicle from a dash separating the powertrain mounting compartment and an interior vehicle, a curved portion which is curved towards an outside side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, from the side wall portion, and a front wall portion extending towards an outside side, with respect to a direction vehicle width, from the curved portion, and the reinforcement is attached to a position at which it is arranged on both sides of the center of the wing apron in a vertical direction and overlaps the curved portion.

With the aforementioned configuration, in the suspension turret, the curved portion of the wing apron which is liable to undergo deformation when the loads are transferred from the lateral member during the collision against a front surface is reinforced by the reinforcement . Therefore, the rigidity of the curved portion is improved, and the deformation of the curved portion is thereby suppressed. The rotation of the lateral member during the collision against a front surface can therefore be eliminated, and great load-absorbing and passenger protection performances can be obtained. In addition, only the reinforcement is necessary, and the above-mentioned effects are thus obtained without increasing the weight and the cost of the vehicle.

It is preferable that the curved portion of the wing apron and the reinforcement form an integral closed cross section. With this configuration, the rigidity of the curved portion can be further increased. Load damping performance, passenger protection performance and the like mentioned above can therefore be further improved.

It is preferable that the lateral structure of the vehicle body further comprises a front extension which overlaps the front wall portion of the wing apron and forms a transverse section closed integrally with the front wall portion, and a portion of the reinforcement overlaps the 'front extension via the wing apron. With this configuration, the position at which the reinforcement, the wing apron and the front extension overlap, i.e. the position at which they are joined to each other (what it is referred to below as the junction position), is located between the closed cross-section (what is referred to below as the rear closed cross-section) formed by the curved portion and the reinforcement and the closed cross-section (referred to below as the front closed cross-section) formed by the front wall portion and the front extension. Therefore, the joining position can be strengthened by the front closed cross-section and the rear closed cross-section, which positively prevents bending from occurring at the joining position.

It is preferable that the lateral structure of the vehicle body further comprises an upper suspension support forming part of an upper wall of the suspension turret, the upper suspension support is joined to the dashboard, and the reinforcement is separated from the upper suspension support. With this configuration, the transfer to the dashboard of the loads applied to the wing apron and thus to the reinforcement of the lateral member during the collision against a front surface can be prevented by means of the upper suspension support. .

It is preferable that the reinforcement is separated from the lateral member. With this configuration, the direct transfer, to the reinforcement, of the loads applied to the lateral member during the collision against a front surface can be eliminated, which makes it possible to reliably obtain the reinforcement effect of the reinforcement on the wing apron.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The dimensions, materials and other specific numerical values described in this embodiment are purely exemplary to facilitate understanding of the present invention, and should not be interpreted as limiting the invention, unless otherwise indicated. It should be noted that elements constituting substantially identical functions and configurations bear identical reference numbers in this specification and in the accompanying drawings, and their description is not repeated. Likewise, any illustration of elements which are not directly relevant to the present invention is omitted.

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a lateral structure of the vehicle body 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention and represents a state in which the lateral structure of the vehicle body 100 is seen from the outside of the vehicle. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the lateral structure of the vehicle body shown in FIG. 1 in a diagonal view from below, and any illustration of members which are not necessary for the description is omitted. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the lateral structure of the vehicle body 100 shown in FIG. 2 in a diagonal view from above on the interior side of the vehicle.

It should be noted that the left and right side portions of the vehicle body have the same structure in the vehicle (they are not shown in their entirety) and, therefore, the present embodiment is described by taking the example of the right side portion of the vehicle body in the vehicle. In addition, in the drawings used for the following description, the front-rear direction is indicated by "Front" and "Rear", and the vertical direction is indicated by "Top" and "Bottom".

As shown in FIG. 3, the lateral structure of the vehicle body 100 of the present embodiment comprises a lateral member 110 which is arranged on the outside, relative to the direction of width of the vehicle, of an engine compartment 102 , which is a vehicle powertrain mounting compartment. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the side member 110 extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle and is inclined downwardly extending towards the rear side of the vehicle.

As shown in Figure 3, a suspension turret 106, to which a suspension (not shown) is suspended, is provided on the outside, relative to the vehicle width direction, of the side member 110 and above of the lateral member 110. In the present embodiment, the suspension turret 106 comprises a wing apron 120 and an upper suspension support 130.

The wing apron 120 is provided vertical on the outer side, with respect to the vehicle width direction, of the lateral member 110, and is part of the vertical wall of the suspension turret 106. Specifically, the apron of wing 120 comprises a side wall portion 122, a curved portion 124, and a front wall portion 126. The side wall portion 122 is a portion extending towards the front side of the vehicle from a dashboard 108 separating the compartment engine 102 and a vehicle interior 104. The curved portion 124 is a portion curved towards the outside, relative to the direction of vehicle width, from the side wall portion 122. The front wall portion 126 is a portion s extending outwardly, relative to the vehicle width direction, from the curved portion 124.

The upper suspension support 130, which is part of the upper wall of the suspension turret 106, is joined to the upper edge of the wing apron 120. As shown in FIG. 3, the rear edge of the upper suspension support 130 is attached to the dashboard 108 located on the rear side of the upper suspension support 130.

A front extension 140 is arranged on the front side of the vehicle with respect to the wing apron 120. As shown by a line with long segments and short dashes in Figure 1, a portion of the rear side of the vehicle front extension 140 is arranged to overlap the front wall portion of the wing apron 120 (cf. FIG. 2) in view of the lateral side of the vehicle.

In the present embodiment, the front extension 140 is joined to the lateral member 110 and to the wing apron 120. Consequently, the wing apron 120 is indirectly connected to the lateral member 110 via of the front extension 140. When loads are applied to the lateral member 110 during a collision against a front surface, the loads are transferred to the wing apron 120 via the front extension 140. However, this configuration is purely exemplary, and the wing apron 120 can be directly connected to the lateral member 110.

The present embodiment is characterized in that the lateral structure of the vehicle body 100 further comprises a reinforcement 150 attached to the wing apron 120. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the reinforcement 150 is attached to the surface on the vehicle exterior side of the wing apron 120. The reinforcement 150 is attached to a position at which it is arranged on both sides of the center of the wing apron 120 in the vertical direction and overlaps the curved portion 124 of the apron wing 120. It should be noted that FIG. 3 is a diagram seen from the inside of the vehicle, the reinforcement 150 cannot be directly observed and is therefore represented by a dotted line in FIG. 3.

If the reinforcement 150 is not provided, there is a possibility that a bending deformation projecting towards the outside of the vehicle may occur at the position indicated by a line of long segments and short dashes L (the center of the bulkhead wing 120 in the vertical direction) in Figure 2 during a collision against a front surface. It is thus likely that the lateral member 110 rotates around its rear end as a starting point so that its front end rises as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 2.

In contrast, with the lateral structure of the vehicle body 100 of the present embodiment, the reinforcement 150 is arranged in intersection with (that is to say on both sides of) the line with long segments and short dashes L, which allows increasing the rigidity of the curved portion 124 at this position. This makes it possible to suppress the deformation of the curved portion 124 caused by the loads transferred from the lateral member 110 during the collision against a front surface, and therefore to suppress the rotation of the lateral member 110 caused by this deformation. Consequently, the deformation of the lateral member 110 can be facilitated, and great load-absorbing and passenger protection performances are obtained. Furthermore, only the reinforcement 150 is necessary and the above-mentioned effects are thus obtained without increasing the weight and the cost of the vehicle.

Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of the vehicle body side structure 100 taken along line AA of Figure 3. As shown in Figure 4, in the vehicle body side structure 100 of this embodiment, the curved portion 124 of the wing apron 120 and the reinforcement 150 form an integral closed cross section (which is referred to below as a closed rear cross section 128b). The rigidity of the curved portion 124 can thus be further increased, which improves the aforementioned effects.

In addition, in the side structure of the vehicle body 100 of this embodiment, the front wall portion 126 of the wing apron 120 and the front extension 140 form an integral closed cross-section (to which reference is made below as "cross section closed before 128a"). The rigidity of the front wall portion 126 can therefore also be increased, which makes it possible to improve the above-mentioned effects.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, at a junction position B indicated by an ellipse drawn by a line with long segments and short dashes in FIGS. 3 and 4, a portion of the reinforcement 150 straddles the front extension 140 by l 'intermediate wing apron 120, and these are joined to each other in such a state. Specifically, at junction position B, the front edge of the reinforcement 150, the wing apron 120, and the rear edge of the front extension 140 overlap in this order from the exterior side of the vehicle and are joined together. to the other in this state.

At this stage, as shown in FIG. 4, the junction position B is located between the front closed cross section 128a and the rear closed cross section 128b. Consequently, the junction position B is reinforced by the closed front cross section 128a and the rear closed cross section 128 b having high rigidity, which makes it possible to favorably prevent any bending at the junction position B.

In addition, as shown in Figure 3, the reinforcement 150 is arranged to be separated from the upper suspension support 130 in the present embodiment. Consequently, even when loads are applied to the reinforcement 150 from the lateral member 110 via the wing apron 120 during a collision against a front surface, the loads are not transferred to the upper suspension support. 130 via a support. The transfer, to the dashboard 108 via the upper suspension support 130, of the loads applied during the collision against a front surface can be favorably prevented.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the reinforcement 150 is also arranged to be separated from the lateral member 110 in the present embodiment. Consequently, the direct transfer, to the reinforcement 150, of the loads applied to the lateral member 110 during the collision against a front surface can be eliminated. The reinforcing effect of the reinforcement 150 on the wing apron 120 is therefore obtained in a reliable manner.

Although the configuration in which the reinforcement 150 is attached to the surface on the vehicle exterior side of the wing apron 120 is shown by way of example, the invention is not limited to this. A configuration in which the reinforcement 150 is attached to the surface on the vehicle interior side of the wing apron 120 is also possible.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above. Those skilled in the art can appreciate that various modifications and variations may be made within the scope of the invention, and these modifications and variations are intended to be included within the technical scope of the present invention.

The present invention can be used for a lateral structure of a vehicle body.

Drawing legend

100 ... lateral structure of vehicle body; 102 ... engine compartment; 106 ... suspension turret; 108 ... dashboard; 110 ... lateral organ; 120 ... wing apron; 122 ... side wall portion; 124 ... curved portion; 126 ... portion of front wall; 128a ... cross section closed before; 128b ... closed rear cross section; 130 ... upper suspension support; 140 ... front extension; 150 ... reinforcement.

Claims (5)

1. Lateral structure of vehicle body (100) comprising: a lateral member (110) which is arranged on an outer side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, of a powertrain mounting compartment (102) of a vehicle, extends in a front-rear direction vehicle, and is tilted downwardly extending to a rear side of the vehicle; a wing apron (120) which is provided vertical on an outer side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, of the lateral member (110), is part of a suspension turret (106), and is directly or indirectly connected to the lateral member (110); and a reinforcement (150) which is attached to the wing apron (120), wherein the wing apron (120) comprises a side wall portion (122) extending towards a front side of the vehicle from a control panel edge (108) separating the powertrain mounting compartment (102) and a vehicle interior, a curved portion (124) which is curved toward an exterior side, relative to a vehicle width direction, from the wall portion side (122), and a front wall portion (126) extending to an exterior side, with respect to a vehicle width direction, from the curved portion (124), and the reinforcement (150) is attached to a position in which it is arranged on both sides of the center of the wing apron (120) in a vertical direction and overlaps the curved portion (124). 2. lateral structure of the vehicle body (100) according to claim 1, in which the curved portion (124) of the wing apron (120) and the reinforcement (150) form an integral closed cross section (128b). 3. lateral structure of the vehicle body (100) according to any one of claims 1 and 2, further comprising: a front extension (140) which overlaps the front wall portion (126) of the wing apron (120) and forms a closed cross section (128a) integrally with the front wall portion (126), in which a portion of the reinforcement (150) overlaps the front extension (140) via the wing apron (120). 4. lateral structure of the vehicle body (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising: an upper suspension support (130) forming part of an upper wall of the suspension turret (106), in which the upper suspension support (130) is joined to the dashboard (108), and 10 the reinforcement (150) is separated from the upper suspension support (130). 5. lateral structure of vehicle body (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the reinforcement (150) is separated from the lateral member (110)