Different methods and theories were developed to describe the accident severity. For accident reconstruction the EES Energy Equivalent Speed)- method [1] is an important tool.
Edef = 1/2 m (EES)²
This means that the plastic deformation energy of the damaged car is expressed as a kinetic energy of the car with the virtual velocity value EES.
For an authentic EES-estimation various crash-tests with different conditions are necessary, because the energy absorption depends on various parameters. Documented car deformations for EES values up to approximately 60 km/h are available from crash tests. For higher impact velocities only very little data is published.
To gain a better understanding of the crush behavior at higher impact speeds, a series of full scale rigid barrier impacts were performed at impact speeds in the range of 10 to 100 km/h