DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF ENERGY ABSORBING REAR UNDERRUN BARRIERS FOR HEAVY VEHICLES

Rear underrun crashes involving heavy vehicles with rear overhangs represent the most extreme examples of the incompatibility between heavy and light vehicles, particularly passenger cars. This paper describes the design, development and prototype testing of a practical, effective energy-absorbing rear underrun barrier system. This builds on the extensive work previously undertaken demonstrating the effectiveness of well designed lightweight - but rigid - rear underrun barriers. The energy absorbing unit consists of two lightweight steel tubes, containing the energy absorbing glass fibre reinforced composite tube. The full system exhibits very good force-deformation characteristics, with minimum energy absorption in excess of 40KJ. Testing has included static and dynamic loading, including centred and offset crash testing of the prototype unit to compare the injury outcome with that of a full frontal barrier test of the same vehicle model. [A] For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896528.

• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Rechnitzer, G
  • POWELL, C
  • SEYER, K
• Conference:
  • PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTEENTH INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL CONFERENCE ON THE ENHANCED SAFETY OF VEHICLES, HELD MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, 13-16 MAY 1996.
• Publication Date: 1996

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 648-54
• Serial:
  • Volume: 1

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash tests; Crashes; Energy; Trucks; Underride override crashes
• ITRD Terms: 1631: Collision; 213: Energy; 1648: Impact test (crash); 1236: Lorry; 1420: Underride prevention
• Subject Areas: Energy; Motor Carriers; Research;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00747446
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 28 1998 12:00AM