Occupant protecting structures of vehicle body upper portions

An occupant protecting structure of a vehicle body upper portion, which is applied to a pillar, the pillar comprising:

• an outer panel having a predetermined thickness;
• an inner panel having a predetermined thickness and disposed further toward an interior of a vehicle than said outer panel with a space therebetween;
• and
• an energy absorbing panel disposed further toward the interior of the vehicle than said inner panel with a space therebetween,
• wherein said inner panel-has a pair of opposing side surface portions at both ends of an intermediate portion of said inner panel, said energy absorbing panel has a pair of opposing side surface portions which are formed at both ends of a pressure-applied portion to which load is applied from a head portion of an occupant and which are respectively fixed to the pair of side surface portions of said inner panel, and said outer panel and said inner panel form a closed cross-sectional configuration when cut along a virtual line perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of said outer and inner panels in a state in which an end portion of said outer panel facing toward the interior of the vehicle and an end portion of said inner panel facing toward the exterior of the vehicle are joined with each other and a flange portion of said outer panel on a side opposite to the end portion of said outer panel and a flange portion of said inner panel on a side opposite to the end portion of said inner panel are joined with each other in layers.

An occupant protecting structure of a vehicle body upper portion, which is applied to at least one of a pillar and a roof rail, at least one of the pillar and the roof rail comprising:

• an outer panel having a predetermined thickness;
• an inner panel having a predetermined thickness and disposed further toward an interior of a vehicle than said outer panel with a space therebetween;
• and
• a garnish disposed further toward the interior of the vehicle than said inner panel,
• wherein said outer panel and said inner panel form a closed cross-sectional configuration when cut along a virtual line perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of said outer and inner panels in a state in which one flange portions and another flange portions of said outer panel and said inner panel are respectively joined in layers, and said inner panel has an energy absorbing portion including a pressure-applied surface which expands in an inward direction of the vehicle, to maintain a predetermined rigidity and strength, with a state in which an area of the closed cross-sectional configuration is made to a size at which building-up characteristics of at least one of the pillar and the roof rail are obtained.

An occupant protecting structure of a vehicle body upper portion, which is applied to at least one of a pillar and a roof rail, at least one of the pillar and the roof rail comprising:

• an outer panel having a predetermined thickness;
• an inner panel disposed further toward an interior of a vehicle than said outer panel with a space therebetween;
• a reinforce disposed between said inner panel and said outer panel;
• and
• a garnish disposed further toward the interior of the vehicle than said inner panel,
• wherein said inner panel has a thickness smaller than that of said outer panel, and wherein said reinforce is formed as a convex portion which projects in an outward direction of the vehicle when seen from a cross section cut along a virtual line perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of the reinforce, and wherein said outer panel, said inner panel and said reinforce form a closed cross-sectional configuration when cut along a virtual line perpendicular to the longitudinal direction in a state in which respective flange portions of said outer panel, said inner panel and said reinforce are joined in layers at each of both ends of said outer panel, said inner panel and said reinforce.