An overview on some recent trends and advances in the crash simulation and design of transport vehicles is given. This overview highlights selected algorithmic solver code advances in the used simulation tools, the use and the modelling of new materials for crash energy absorption, concept car design techniques, massive parallel programming and performance gains, side impact barrier modelling, mechanical occupant surrogate modelling (dummies), biomechanical models of human parts, as well as extensions of crash simulation techniques to the simulation of drop tests for appliances, shock absorption of a Mars lander, etc. The shown examples and descriptions testify the extreme progress and diversification crash simulation techniques have undergone in the past ten years.

The pressure forming, or thermoforming, of preconsolidated continuous fibre-reinforced thermoplastic sheets offers a promising fabrication option for structural composite components. Modern thermoplastic polymers have improved mechanical and physical properties compared with their thermoset counterparts and, perhaps most important for industry, offer the possibility for rapid part production. As in tradational metal stamping, the current process and part design for thermoforming rely heavily on ‘trial and error’ practices which are costly, inefficient and provide little scope for optimization and understanding of the forming process. For efficient thermoforming information regarding temperature and pressure distribution, part thickness distribution, fibre orientations and potential regions of material defects must be determined. This paper presents some first results of an explicit finite element solution to simulate the forming process. At present a constant temperature process is assumed, however work is presently underway to include this effect.