Abstract

This paper presents a parametric study of the offset frontal impact on a bus, in which is assessed independently an influence of each variable involved in this accident type. The scenario of offset frontal impact is surely one of the most severe accidents involving buses, once the same has part of your lateral totally damaged and can leave a large number of victims. The numerical simulation model uses an explicit analysis formed by beams elements which uses elastic‐plastic constitutive law, which takes into account the influence of strain rate. With this model a parametric study of global variables that can characterize this type of scenario is realized. Also are evaluated qualitatively real accidents happened on Brazilian roads. The discussion is finally presented, and serves as a first step in the search for improvements to be made to the structures of the bus, aiming to minimize the damage.