MOTOR VEHICLE HAVING A MEANS FOR RELEASING THE FRONT WHEEL IN THE EVENT OF FRONTAL IMPACT

Abstract

The present invention relates to a motor vehicle having a front wheel consisting of a rim with an inner sidewall and an underbody structure comprising a front longitudinal member (1), an A-pillar (3) and a connecting piece (5) between the front longitudinal member (1) and the A-pillar (3), the connecting piece (5) being located at the back of the front wheel. The vehicle is characterized in that the connecting piece (5) has a bearing element (7) with a raised section (9) projecting toward the front of the vehicle, the raised section (9) extending in the transverse direction of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A motor vehicle comprising a front wheel provided with a rim with an inner sidewall, an underbody structure comprising a front longitudinal member, an A-pillar, and a connecting piece between said front longitudinal member and said A-pillar, the connecting piece being located at the back of the front wheel, wherein the connecting piece has a bearing element with a raised section projecting toward the front of the vehicle, said raised section extending in a transverse direction of the vehicle.

2. The motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the connecting piece has a curved shape, and wherein the raised section follows the curved shape of said connecting piece and/or said raised section has an elongated shape between a first end located on the side of the front longitudinal member and a second end located on the side of the A-pillar, the width of the raised section being greater at the second end than at the first end.

3. The motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said raised section protrudes toward the front of the vehicle by 1 mm to 4 mm with respect to the surface of the connecting piece; and/or said raised section protrudes toward the front of the vehicle in a constant manner over the entire length of said raised section.

4. The motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the bearing element is integral with the connecting piece; the raised section of the bearing element being formed by stamping the connecting piece.

5. The motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said bearing element is a piece attached to said connecting piece; said bearing element being fixed to the connecting piece by at least one screw, at least one weld bead, and/or at least one spot weld.

6. The motor vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the bearing element comprises at least one stiffening rib; and wherein the bearing element comprises at least one fixing lug and the at least one stiffening rib is arranged on the at least one fixing lug.

7. The motor vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the bearing element is a profile.

8. The motor vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the bearing element is made of very high elastic limit steel or high elastic limit steel; or the bearing element is made of plastic and/or aluminum.

9. The motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the bearing element extends over at least 80% of the length of said connecting piece.

10. The motor vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle further comprises an apron adjacent to the A-pillar and delimiting the passenger compartment of the vehicle, said vehicle further comprising a reinforcing piece fixed at least to the A-pillar and the apron.

11. The vehicle according to claim 7, wherein said profile define a section in the shape of a U or an uppercase omega.

12. The motor vehicle of claim 10, wherein the reinforcing piece has a flange.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0027] The invention will be understood and other aspects and advantages will emerge on reading the following description, which is provided for the sake of example, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

[0028] FIG. 1 is a view of a wheelhouse of the vehicle ; and

[0029] FIG. 2 is a view of a bearing element .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] In the following description, the term “comprise” is synonymous with “include” and is not limiting, in that it allows the presence of other elements in the vehicle. It will readily be understood that the term “comprise” includes the term “consist of.” Similarly, the terms “front,” “rear,” “longitudinal,” and “transverse” will be understood in relation to the general orientation of the vehicle as considered according to its normal direction of travel. In the various figures, the same references designate identical or similar elements.

[0031] FIG. 1 shows a front wheelhouse of the vehicle, seen from the front to the rear of the vehicle. For the sake of clarity, the front wheel has not been shown, which makes it possible to see the underbody structure of the vehicle made up of a front longitudinal member 1, an A-pillar 3, and a connecting piece 5 between the front longitudinal member 1 and the A-pillar 3. The connecting piece 5 is located at the back of the front wheel. In order to favor the scenarios of releasing the front wheel toward the outside of the vehicle during a frontal collision, the connecting piece 5 has a bearing element 7 with a raised section 9 projecting toward the front of the vehicle and extending along the transverse direction of the vehicle. The bearing element 7 is therefore configured so that when the front wheel moves back toward the A-pillar, the inner sidewall of the rim of the front wheel is placed in contact with the raised section 9, preventing the A-pillar from fitting between the inner and outer sidewalls of the front wheel.

[0032] A certain advantage of such a configuration is that the bearing element can be integrated both on the left side and on the right side of the vehicle. Thus, the two front wheels of the vehicle have the same wheel release system in the event of a partial overlap frontal collision. Another advantage is that it is a passive, inexpensive security system that is easy to implement even on existing and light vehicles.

[0033] FIG. 2 shows the bearing element 7, from the rear of the vehicle. In this FIG. 2, the raised section 9 therefore appears to sink. The shape of the raised section 7 is elongated between a first end 11 located on the side of the front longitudinal member 1 (visible in FIG. 1) and a second end 13 located on the side of the A-pillar 13 (visible in FIG. 1). In order for the rear of the rim not to come into contact with the A-pillar 13 (visible in FIG. 1), the width of the second end 13 is wider than the width of the first end 11, such that when the wheel escapes, the rim thereof hits this second end 13 and is deflected outwards. Advantageously, the connecting piece 5 has a curved shape and the shape of the raised section 7 also has a curvature so as to follow the shape of the connecting piece 5.

[0034] The raised section 9 of the bearing element 7 can be 1 mm to 4 mm, more preferably by 2 mm to 3 mm, from the surface of the connecting piece 5 on which the bearing element is fixed. The volume thus created by the raised section makes it possible to deflect the wheel outwards. In general, the support surface that will come into contact with the front wheel on the raised section is arranged at a constant distance along the surface of the connecting piece 5.

[0035] The bearing element can extend over at least 80% of the length of said connecting piece 5, or over at least 90% of the length of said connecting piece, or over 100% of the length of said connecting piece.

[0036] A first way of incorporating this device on the vehicle is to integrate it directly into the connecting piece 5, for example by creating the raised section by stamping. This embodiment has the advantage of not having to add an additional part to the structure of the vehicle underbody and can be used during the manufacture of a new vehicle. This embodiment does not add weight to the vehicle.

[0037] Alternatively, the bearing element 7 can be a piece attached to said connecting piece 5, preferably fixed by at least one screw, at least one weld bead, and/or at least one spot weld. It is thus possible to equip vehicles already on the market with this safety system. The bearing element 7 may comprise at least one stiffening rib 15, preferably arranged on the fixing lug(s) 17 of the bearing element. With a view to reducing the weight of the vehicle, the bearing element may be a profile, in particular a profile with a U-shaped section or in the shape of an uppercase omega. The profile is arranged so that its section is open toward the connecting piece.

[0038] The bearing element 7 is made of steel; the steel is preferably selected from high-strength steels (HSS), very high-strength steels (VHSS), or ultra high-strength steels (UHSS). These steels have a fine-grained structure and exhibit excellent mechanical characteristics (yield strength, fatigue strength and resilience) as well as good formability.

[0039] As a reminder, mild steels exhibit an elastic limit ranging from 300 to 350 MPa, high-strength steels (HSS) exhibit an elastic limit ranging from 400 to 700 MPa, very high-strength steels (VHSS) exhibit a yield strength ranging from 800 to 1000 MPa, and ultra-high strength steels (UHSS) exhibit a yield strength of 1100 to 1500 MPa. The yield strength is measured according to ISO 6892-1:2016.

[0040] Alternatively, the bearing element 7 is made of plastic and/or aluminum, preferably a composite material based on plastic and aluminum. The presence of at least one stiffening rib 15 is particularly recommended when the bearing element 7 is made of plastic and/or aluminum. The lightness of these materials (plastic and/or aluminum) compared to the use of rigid steel is an attractive property in motor vehicle design, particularly from an ecological point of view. An example of plastic used is dense polypropylene foam.

[0041] In general, the presence of the bearing element 7 proved its usefulness when a safety test involving a small overlap frontal collision was carried out at a speed of 64 km/h.

[0042] In order to reinforce the underbody structure and to anticipate the eventuality of the frontal impact resulting in crushing of the front wheel on the A-pillar, it is possible to install a reinforcing piece 21, for example made from DP450 steel, or dense polypropylene foam, at least at the A-pillar 3 and the apron 19 of the vehicle. More details about this reinforcing piece 21 are available in FR3058110, which is incorporated here by reference.

[0043] Preferably, the reinforcing piece 21 comprises a flange 23 that allows the front wheel to be engaged during the frontal collision. When the raised section 9 of the bearing element 7 extends toward the front of the vehicle over a distance equivalent to the distance reached by the extension of the flange 23 toward the front of the vehicle, the flange 23 and the raised section 9 of the bearing element 7 can both participate in the release of the front wheel during a partial overlap frontal collision. Indeed, in this case, the bearing volume formed by the presence of the raised section 9 on the connecting piece 5 is extended by the flange 23 of the reinforcing piece 21.