Vehicle-to-Vehicle Front-to-Side Crash Compatibility Analysis Using a CAE Based Methodology

Fundamental physics and numerous field studies have clearly shown a higher fatality risk for occupants in smaller and lighter vehicles when colliding with the heavier one, especially when the struck vehicle is a passenger car and the striking vehicle is a light trucks and vans (LTV) or an sport utility vehicle (SUV). The consensus is that the significant parameters influencing compatibility in front-to-side crashes are geometric interaction, vehicle stiffness, and vehicle mass. The effect of each individual design parameter, however, is not clearly understood. A finite element (FE) model-based design of experiments (DOE) methodology focused on evaluating the effects of a few striking vehicle design variables on dummy responses of the struck vehicle in front-to-side impact was developed. This study utilized a deterministic approach including optimally spaced Latin hypercube sampling which allowed analytical prediction equations for dummy responses to be generated from twenty-one simulation runs. Selected response variables were the dummy injury measures Thoracic Trauma Index (TTI) and pelvis acceleration. Several multi-dimensional response surfaces were constructed based on the simulation results and found to be well correlated (R²=0.83 and R²=0.94 for TTI and pelvis acceleration, respectively). Results indicate that lower front-end structures in vehicle-to-vehicle front-to-side collisions have the greatest effect on reducing (struck vehicle driver) TTI than other design variables. This was found to contrast the pelvic acceleration results, which tended to increase with lower front structure height of the striking vehicle. The stiffness and mass showed moderate significance on the TTI with less mass effect than stiffness. The mass showed no significant effect on the pelvis acceleration.

• Record URL:
  • http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/esv/20th/
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Alternate title: Front-to-Side Crash Compatibility Analysis Using a CAE Based Methodology
• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Barbat, Saeed
  • Li, Xiaowei
  • Prasad, Priya
• Conference:
  • 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV)
  • Location: Lyon , France
  • Date: 2007-6-18 to 2007-6-21
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8p
• Monograph Title: 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash injuries; Crash victim simulation; Finite element method; Frontal crashes; Light vehicles; Lower extremities; Side crashes; Sport utility vehicles
• Identifier Terms: Thoracic Trauma index
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01576632
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-0347
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 25 2015 4:20PM