What is the benefit of the frontal mobile barrier test procedure?

Adolph, Thorsten; Ott, Julian; Eickhoff, Burkhard; Johannsen, Heiko

Affiliations

¹Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Germany

Abstract

Frontal impact is still the most relevant impact direction in terms of injury causation amongst car occupants. Especially for car-to-car frontal impacts the mass ratio between the involved vehicles has a significant impact on the injury risk (the heavier the opponent car the higher the injury risk). In order to address this issue frontal Mobile Deformable Barrier test procedures have been developed world-wide (for example the MPDB procedure that was fully described during the FIMCAR Project). The objective of this study was to investigate how vehicles of different weight classes perform in a mobile barrier test procedure compared to a fixed barrier test procedure (the full width rigid and offset deformable barrier test). Beyond that, the influence of vehicle mass and vehicle deformation on injuries was evaluated based on real world accident data.

Five vehicle types were selected and tested in a fixed offset test procedure (ODB), a full width rigid barrier test procedure (FWRB) and a mobile offset test procedure (MPDB). For the accident analyses data from the German In-Depth Accident Study (GIDAS) was evaluated with a focus on MAIS 2+ injured belted front row car (UN-R 94 compliant cars) occupants in frontal impact accidents.

Test data indicates higher dummy loadings, in particular for the head acceleration and chest acceleration, in the MPDB test for the vehicles with a mass lighter than the trolley (1,500 kg) compared to the FWRB test. The trend of increased vehicle stiffness (especially illustrated by tests with the MPDB and small cars) shows the need of a further improvement of passive restraint systems to reduce the occupant loading and with it the injury risk.

The analyzed GIDAS data confirm the higher injury risk for occupants in cars with an accident weight of less than 1,500 kg compared to those with a crash weight above 1,500 kg in car-to-car and car-to-object or car-toHGV, respectively. Furthermore the injury risk increases with decreasing mass ratio (i.e., the opponent car is heavier) in car-to-car accidents. Independent from the higher injury risk, the risk for passenger compartment intrusion in frontal impact appears not to be independent on the crash weight of the car.

Links

URL: http://www-esv.nhtsa.dot.gov/Proceedings/24/files/24ESV-000254.PDF

Cited Works (6)

Year	Entry
2009	Bean JD, Kahane CJ, Mynatt M, Rudd RW, Rush CJ, Wiacek C. Fatalities in Frontal Crashes Despite Seat Belts and Air Bags: Review of All CDS Cases: Model and Calendar Years 2000-2007: 122 Fatalities. Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; September 2009. NHTSA Technical Report DOT HS 811 202.
2013	Saunders J, Parent D. Assessment of an oblique moving deformable barrier test procedure. In: Proceedings of the 23rd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 27-30, 2013; Seoul, South Korea.
2003	Otte D, Krettek C, Brunner H, Zwipp H. Scientific approach and methodology of a new in-depth-investigation study in germany so called GIDAS. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.
2003	Mertz HJ, Irwin AL, Prasad P. Biomechanical and scaling bases for frontal and side impact injury assessment reference values. Stapp Car Crash J. 2003;47:155-188. SAE 2003-22-0009.
1990	Kramer F, Appel H. Evaluation of protection criteria on the basis of statistical biomechanics. In: Proceedings of the 1990 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 12-14, 1990; Lyon, France.45-57.
2007	Schram R, Versmissen T. The development of a mobile deformable barrier test procedure. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.