The main purpose of this study was to investigate the importance of introducing crash-rate sensitivity factors into the computer simulations of side impact crashes. In earlier studies, it was assumed that dynamic effects have little influence on the structure and occupant responses. However, experimental work on structural components does show different results for static and dynamic tests. It was felt, therefore, that further study of the influence of these effects on occupant responses in side-impact simulations was needed.

The effects of two crash-rate parameters were studied:​ the crash rate sensitivity of the car structure, and the crash rate sensitivity of the door-padding. A previously developed, lumped spring-mass model was employed and was solved by using the CRUSH program. The simulations were performed for two crash speeds and for several cases of door-padding thickness. The effect of the door-padding thickness was approached in two different ways. One approach was to keep the occupant-door spacing constant and to change the total door thickness to account for the padding thickness;​ the other approach was to keep the size of the car structure constant while changing the occupant-door spacing to accommodate changes in padding thickness. Three thoracic injury criteria, including old and new TTI and were calculated and plotted as functions of the padding thickness, showing the influence of both rate factors and padding thickness on these criteria.