Crushable Air Duct Grooves Impact Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current air induction systems (AIS) fail to effectively protect expensive under-hood components during low-speed impacts, as they often resist movement and cause additional damage, necessitating a component that is strong enough for engine conditions but weak enough to break and vacate space without damaging adjacent components.
Innovation Solution
A crushable or collapsible air induction duct with strategically positioned and patterned break-initiating grooves, made from readily breakable rigid polymerized materials like polypropylene or high-density polyethylene, designed to fail at a specified load, allowing controlled cracking and absorption of impact energy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the air duct is made strong to withstand engine conditions, then it can perform under all engine conditions, but it resists movement during impact and causes damage to expensive under-hood components
Solution Approach 1:
The air duct is segmented into multiple walls with strategically positioned grooves that create predetermined break points. These grooves divide the structure into sections that can fail independently at controlled locations, allowing the duct to collapse in a managed way that protects expensive components while maintaining overall structural integrity during normal operation
Solution Approach 2:
The duct exhibits different mechanical properties at different locations: the grooved regions are designed to be weak and fail at predetermined forces (e.g., 500N), while other regions maintain full strength to withstand engine conditions during normal operation. This local variation in quality allows the duct to be both strong when needed and sacrificial when impacted
2Object-affected harmful factors
If elastomeric materials are used to make the duct soft and crushable, then it can meet Low Speed Damageability requirements, but the component costs and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of changing the material from rigid plastic to elastomeric (which would increase weight and cost), the invention changes the structural parameters by incorporating grooves of specific depth, width, and positioning. These geometric parameter changes create predetermined weak points that allow the rigid plastic duct to collapse at predetermined forces, achieving LSD requirements without the penalty of elastomeric materials
Solution Approach 2:
The duct can be constructed as a composite structure combining rigid plastic material with strategically placed grooves or integrated sacrificial elements. This composite approach maintains the weight and cost advantages of rigid plastic while incorporating the crushable characteristics needed for Low Speed Damageability compliance
3Object-affected harmful factors
If the duct is designed to collapse at predetermined force, then it protects adjacent components, but it must be weak enough to break while remaining strong enough for engine conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The grooves are pre-formed during manufacturing to create predetermined failure points. This preliminary action ensures that when impact occurs, the duct will fail in a controlled manner at these pre-designed locations rather than randomly, guaranteeing both protection of adjacent components and reliable performance under engine conditions
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed inventive concept provides a crushable air duct having formed thereon a series of strategically positioned and patterned crack-initiating grooves. The grooves allow the air duct to be crushed in an impact event and a specified impact force, thereby protecting adjacent and higher cost under hood components from damage. In an impact event, the series of grooves allows the cracks in the air duct to readily propagate throughout the pattern in a controlled and predictable manner. The crushable air duct is formed from a rigid polymerized material. The duct includes an inlet and an outlet. The grooves are formed on either or both the exterior surface and the interior surface of the duct. Some of the grooves extend generally between the inlet and the outlet. These grooves are preferably parallel. Other grooves are circumferentially formed around the duct. At least some of the parallel and circumferential grooves intersect.