Determination of frontal offset test conditions based on crash data

Stucki, Sheldon L.; Hollowell, William T.; Fessahaie, Osvaldo

Affiliations

¹National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

²Information Systems and Services, Inc., United States

Abstract

This paper reports on the test procedure development phase of the agency‘s Improved Frontal Protection research program. It is anticipated that even after all cars and light trucks have air bags for drivers and front seat passengers there will remain over 8,000 fatalities a year and over 100,000 moderate to severe injuries. This research program will address these injuries/fatalities through development of crash tests with impact conditions not currently addressed by FMVSS No. 208, development of additional or more appropriate instrumentation and injury criteria on the test surrogate, and evaluation of other sizes of test surrogates.

An analysis of crash data is presented using the National -4utomotive Sampling System (NASS) and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for fatality counts. The population is drivers in frontal collisions with air bag restraints. Using NASS, frontal impact modes are grouped into general “test” conditions which will best represent the real world impact environment. These general test conditions include full barrier, left and right offset, and other impact modes. Using these general groupings of impact conditions, the analysis further assesses degree of overlap and impact direction to determine more specifically which crash conditions result in highest injun;/fatality to drivers with air bags. Injury/fatality risk is also assessed by driver size and body region. with a more detailed analysis of leg injuries. Finally, a preliminary benefits analysis is presented for a future frontal, left, offset test procedure.

A test procedure has been developed, and is reported on in a separate paper [I]. Collinear and oblique, offset, frontal crash testing, at different widths of overlap, has been conducted with several current model, “target” cars into a standard “bullet” car at closing speeds of about 110 kph. Dummy injury measurements and structural responses provide a basis for determining which impact conditions produce the most severe environment for occupants with air bags. It appears that the oblique impact with over 50 percent overlap produces the most severe responses on the “target” car. Development of this impact configuration into a potential frontal test procedure has been completed using a moving deformable barrier (MDB).

Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv16/98s1o02.pdf

Cited Works (4)

Year	Entry
1998	Park BT, Morgan RM, Hackney JR, Lee J, Stucki SL, Lowrie JC. Frontal offset crash test study using 50th percentile male and 5th percentile female dummies. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.150-163.
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1998	Ragland CL. Offset test procedure development and comparison. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.185-193.
1996	Stucki SL, Hollowell WT. NHTSA’s improved frontal protection research program. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.192-205.

Cited By (11)

Year	Entry
1999	Summers S, Prasad A, Hollowell W. NHTSA’s vehicle compatibility research program update. In: Proceedings of the SAE International Congress & Exposition. March 1-4, 1999; Detroit, MI. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE 1999-01-0071.
1998	Ragland CL. Offset test procedure development and comparison. In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.185-193.
2001	Barbat S, Li X, Prasad P. Evaluation of vehicle compatibility in various frontal impact configurations. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2001	Kuppa S, Wang J, Haffner M, Eppinger R. Lower extremity injuries and associated injury criteria. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2003	Lee I, Ainaka K, Saiki J, Yubuchi M. Parameter optimization for vehicle to vehicle crash compatibility using finite element methods. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.
2005	Saunders JW III, Prasad A. NHTSA’s frontal offset research program. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 6-9, 2005; Washington, DC.
2007	Brumbelow ML, Baker BC, Nolan JM. Effects of seat belt load limiters on driver fatalities in frontal crashes of passenger cars. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
2009	Kirk K, Kuppa S. Application and evaluation of a novel KTH injury criterion for the Hybrid III dummy in frontal crash test environments. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2009	Brumbelow ML, Zuby DS. Impact and injury patterns in frontal crashes of vehicles with good ratings for frontal crash protection. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2009	Rudd RW. Updated analysis of lower extremity injury risk in frontal crashes in the United States. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2011	Mango N, Garthe E. Standard & integrated restraint first row seat performance in rear-impact crashes. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.