Body in White Structure/Strength for Crash Test

[BigE]

Many of us have asked Rivian for details on Crash Test and that will come in time. As a couple of the pre-order holders shared some of their videos, I was looking for some evidence of what Rivian has done to the structure to strengthen it. Those large side panel stamping of Alumium had me worried as there is no way that is strong enough to pass say the small off-set crash test. For some context, I'll share a video of how Acura/Honda uses a Usibor Hot Stamped Door Ring on their MDX resulting in a very strong structure.

Rivian: per their website: "Structures made from aluminum alloy, ultra-high-strength steel, and carbon fiber are designed for enhanced safety". I have asked Rivian for a body in white diagram identifying materials used as other OEM's share and have not received anything.

What I think I see in some of the video from Duck is carbon fiber reinforcements to the A & B pillars and parts of the front door ring.

I'll paste in a picture of the "body in white", the blank side stamping, and 2 screenshots in which you see Black overlayment in critical areas.

As I am not an engineer, do we have any mechanical engineers on here who can give some insight into what I'm looking at?

Acura's Usibor Door Ring:

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[KenJ]

I am a mechanical engineer, albeit a rusty one. I think it would be somewhat hard to deduce much from a body in white other than perhaps general performance. If you looked at a structure designed to meet only a lesser standard in some other parts of the world, there might a few noticeable differences, but the images we’ve seen so far of the Rivian seem pretty typical of a unibody vehicle. I can’t comment specifically on the Acura “ring” other than to say there are certainly lots of cars that performed as well, that don’t use the ring. Likewise there are some vehicles that have unique structures like the Corvette, McLaren or use unique materials like some Audis and BMWs where the performance difference might not be evident by looking at it. I have ZERO doubt that Rivian is not going to go through this level of effort to NOT build a vehicle that will meet or exceed US and international standards. There are presentations out on the web that talk about unibody design and crash testing from conferences, SAE, universities and probably IIHS and others. I’ll see if I can find some good ones to give you and idea.

 

[LoneStar]

That's not carbon fiber composite reinforcement. Not certain what it is. May be a protective coating in the darker shade and a coating or cover/panel in the lighter gray.

To gain any meaningful strengthening from composite would require a full boxed structure (or tubular) to benefit from the very high stiffness. Not much gained by just placing a few layers of composite in localized (non-continuous) places.

If that was a graphite/carbon fiber composite being placed against aluminum then the AL won't last long due to galvanic corrosion without a thick barrier film or coating.

 

[BigE]

Just for clarification, Rivian’s are body on frame (massive frame at that).

 

[crashmtb]

There is probably high strength advanced(i.e. Boron) alloy steel inside the pillars, roof perimeter, rockers, footwell, etc.
But we can’t discern that without seeing a cross section.

given the clean sheet nature of rivian’s design, they’re almost certainly aiming for best safety outcomes they can get.

it will be interesting to see the emergency response guide when they release it.
id expect that to become available at the same time as service and repair information.

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