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Motorcycle frontal crashes always cause serious and fatal head injuries to riders, and the behaviour of riders was known to be influenced by the behaviour of the motorcycle during crashes. Thus the present work was carried out with the main objective to study the effects of changes of layout design of a small motorcycle, particularly in regards to the arrangement of the engine block and air filter casing, on its behaviour in frontal crashes. The study was performed via finite element simulations using a motorcycle model with fully functional and deformable front wheel and fork structures. A two-level factorial experiment approach, 23, was used for the parametric study design, with the peak magnitude of horizontal and vertical accelerations of the motorcycle in the crash as response variables. The key peak magnitude of both the acceleration components which were found to be substantially affected by the layout changes showed the differences of 26.8% and 43.9% between the designs that yield the lowest and highest accelerations, respectively, for the horizontal and vertical accelerations. Empirical models for predicting the peak magnitude of the corresponding accelerations were established and the effect plots were also produced. The crash behaviour of the motorcycle in relation to the crash safety was discussed and it was concluded that the behaviour of the motorcycle in frontal crashes could be enhanced for better crash safety by a proper design of motorcycle layout. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents modelling aspects of a high fidelity finite element model of a motorcycle telescopic fork. For validation purpose, a series of impact tests of which a frontal impact load imposed on the individual fork by a rigid striker was conducted using factorial experiment approach. The model was then used to simulate all the impacts accordingly. The outcomes were evaluated in terms of permanent deformations of the fork, energy dissipated in the impact, and the velocity and displacement time histories of the striker. The overall performance and sensitivity of the model was also assessed using the factorial analysis. The deviations of time histories data were quantified by mean error, mean absolute error and root mean square error. The key responses of the fork were found to be successfully simulated and compared well to the test results. The computed largest value among the respective metrics over the total errors was 6.2% of which corresponding to the root mean square error of the displacement time histories data, whereas others were less than 3%. It is thus concluded that the fork model has been successfully validated and the modelling methods has been established. Recommendations for improvements were also given in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]