Development of Methodology for Finite Element Simulation of Overhead Guard Impact Test

Abstract: Forklifts that are capable of lifting heavy loads and reaching high lift heights are required by stan-dards to have an overhead guard to protect the operator from falling objects. The same standardsspecify a standardized procedure for testing the strength of these overhead guards. The test in-volves dropping ten 45 kg wooden cubes and a heavy timber load onto the overhead guard. Thesedestructive tests are time-consuming and expensive, and it is the purpose of this master’s thesis todevelop a methodology for simulating this kind of test using the finite element method with a largedisplacements, explicit scheme using the solver RADIOSS by Altair. This was achieved by firstdesigning, constructing, and testing a physical prototype of an overhead guard to use as a referencefor a finite element methodology to be validated against. The work has also included tensile testingof the overhead guard material, and this was done both to obtain material data from the sametype of material as the prototype, and to get Johnson-Cook material parameters, which are hardto come by in the literature. Next, a basic finite element model was created which showed a verylarge discrepancy compared to the physical test results. An extensive investigation into aspectssurrounding finite element modeling and material modeling was undertaken, and resulted in a fi-nal model which overestimated the displacements by about 40 % only. The remaining inaccuracyis believed to mostly stem from inadequate strain-rate sensitivity data, caused by limitations inavailable resources for material testing.