Abstract:This paper investigated the safety behavior of a small car subjected to double-sided roof crush test, assessing the effect of different pitch and roll angle combinations on the roof crush strength and evaluating the difference in strength between near and far sides. A finite element model of Ford Fiesta was initially validated against the roof crush test, and was subsequently employed in virtual testing according to a full factorial method DOE (design of experiments) based on the variations of roll and pitch angles. The results have shown that the roll and pitch angles are a function of roof strength and greatly influence the overall collapse behavior. Within a 127 mm crush distance (5 inches), the strength of the two-sided roof decreases as the roll angle varies from 10° to 45° with a fixed pitch angle; the strength of the two-sided roof decreases as the roll angle increases from 5° to 15° with a fixed roll angle. Furthermore, the roof on the near side generally performs better and more strongly than the far side.