The test procedures described in current European and Japanese side impact regulations and assessments involve striking a moving deformable barrier (MDB) into a stationary test vehicle. However, since many car-to-car side impact accidents in the real world occur when the struck vehicle is also moving, the force direction into the struck vehicle in the configurations described by these regulations and assessments differs from that in those actual accidents.
Therefore, to simulate the force into a moving struck vehicle in the current test configuration, i.e., a perpendicular MDB side impact, it is necessary to integrate the stiffness characteristics of the front of the striking vehicle in a side impact accident where both vehicles are moving.
Consequently, a crabbed frontal impact test that simulates the force direction into the striking vehicle in a moving car to moving car side impact test was considered as an evaluation method for the frontal stiffness characteristics. This crabbed frontal impact test was confirmed to be capable of measuring the stiffness characteristics of the front of the striking vehicle occurring in a moving car to moving car side impact.
In addition, an MDB for simulating crabbed frontal impacts was developed based on the frontal stiffness characteristics obtained from the crabbed frontal impact test. It was confirmed that side impact tests using this MDB were capable of simulating the deformation and door moving velocity of the struck vehicle in a moving car to moving car side impact test.
As a result, vehicle safety enhancements based on a side impact test method using this MDB are expected to contribute to the development of appropriate body structures and restraint devices for real-world accidents.