BASIC RESEARCH IN CRASHWORTHINESS II. DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF STRUCTURAL MODIFICATIONS FOR LUXURY CARS IN FRONTAL IMPACTS

Modifications were made to luxury class vehicles in an attempt to improve the crashworthiness of the vehicles in high speed frontal impacts. This work was an extension of a previous program (Contract No. FH-11-6918) that demonstrated that significant improvement could be made in the performance of standard size vehicles and many of the techniques developed there were carried over to the present effort. Buick Electra 225's were utilized for the tests which consisted of impacting one base line and three modified vehicles into a pole barrier at a target speed of 60 MPH. The primary modifications were the addition of collapsing structural members in the front of the vehicle and the installation of a ramp that deflected the engine under the car. The aim of these modifications was to produce a high level (30 g) sustained structural collapse load and to limit any penetration of the passenger compartment to a minimum.

• Corporate Authors:

  Calspan Corporation

  4455 Genesee Street
  Buffalo, NY  United States  14225
• Authors:
  • Johnson, E H
• Publication Date: 1973-6

Media Info

• Pagination: 106 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceleration (Mechanics); Automobiles; Crash injury research; Crash tests; Crashes; Crashworthiness; Dynamic tests; Frontal crashes; Motor vehicle bodies; Research; Safety engineering; Structural analysis
• Uncontrolled Terms: Structural properties
• Old TRIS Terms: Automobile bodies; Buick electra automobiles; Nhsb
• Subject Areas: Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00050150
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: CALSPAN-YB-1987-V-6 Intrm Rpt
• Contract Numbers: DOT-FH-11-7622
• Files: NTIS
• Created Date: Dec 13 1973 12:00AM