Assessment of an oblique moving deformable barrier test procedure

Saunders, James; Parent, Dan

In September 2009 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a report that investigated the incidence of fatalities to belted non-ejected occupants in frontal crashes involving late-model vehicles. The report concluded that after exceedingly severe crashes, the largest number of fatalities occurred in crashes involving poor structural engagement between the vehicle and its collision partner, such as corner impacts, oblique crashes, or impacts with narrow objects.

In response to these findings, NHTSA began researching a test procedure intended to mitigate the risk of injuries and fatalities related to motor vehicle crashes involving poor structural engagement. This research demonstrated that an offset impact between a “research” moving deformable barrier (RMDB) and a stationary vehicle at a 15 degree angle can reproduce vehicle crush, occupant kinematics, and risk of injury seen in vehicle-to-vehicle crashes. It was also demonstrated that injury risk related to poor structural engagement has not been entirely mitigated in the current fleet, as newly-designed vehicles are still prone to large intrusions and potential injuries to the head, chest, knee/thigh/hip, and lower extremity.

The current study adds additional oblique RMDB-tovehicle crash tests with high sales volumes vehicles in order to capture a larger portion of the current and future fleet for further analysis. These additional tests bolster the utility of the existing database of oblique RMDB-to-vehicle crash tests with a THOR 50th percentile male occupant in the driver’s seat.

Year

Entry

2012

Lemmen P, Been B, Carroll J, Hynd D, Davidsson J, Song E, Lecuyer E. Development of an advanced frontal dummy thorax demonstrator. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 12-14, 2012; Dublin, Ireland.828-842.

2012

Saunders J, Craig M, Parent D. Moving deformable barrier test procedure for evaluating small overlap/oblique crashes. SAE Int J Commer Veh. July 2012;5(1):172-195. SAE 2012-01-0577.

2011

Rudd RW, Scarboro M, Saunders J. Injury analysis of real-world small overlap and oblique frontal crashes. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.

2011

Takhounts EG, Hasija V, Ridella SA, Rowson S, Duma SM. Kinematic rotational brain injury criterion (BRIC). In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.

2011

Ridella SA, Parent DP. Modifications to improve the durability, usability and biofidelity of the THOR-NT dummy. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.