Volvo side impact testing

Nilsson, Mats; Andersson, Kjell; Korner, Johnny; Nilsson-Ehle, Anna

The improvement of side impact protection is today a major concern to the crashworthiness community. A prerequisite for making this development possible is the establishment of a common side impact test method, representative of several traffic environments.

Volvo has made a study aimed at determining the suitability of a moving barrier test as a tool for the development of side impact protection. Traffic accident data from car-to-car accidents have been used as reference to full-scale tests. Certain test parameters have been varied to find out if an improved correlation is possible between real-world accidents and laboratory collision. To further understand the interaction between the occupant and the car structure, sled testing has been used as a complement.

The conclusion of the study is that a suitable side impact test method is a moving deformable barrier (MDB) impacting in a 90° noncrabbed configuration. A good resemblance to real-life accidents is achieved with a CCMC MDB 76, mass 1,400 kg, ground clearance 250mm, and impact speed 35mph.

Future work at Volvo will include further accident investigations, improvement of measurement techniques, development of subsystem testing, and evaluation of different MDB front faces in terms of force-crush characteristics.

Year

Entry

1985

Gebbels DR. The CCMC mobile deformable barrier for lateral collision testing. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). July 1-4, 1985; Oxford, England.811-821. SAE 856094.

1984

Hackney JR, Monk MW, Hollowell WT, Sullivan LK, Willke DT. Results of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's thoracic side impact protection research program. In: Proceedings of the SAE Government/industry Meeting & Exposition. May 21-24, 1984; Washington, DC. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE 840886.

1982

Hue B, Tarrière C, Leung YC, Fayon A, Got C, Patel A. Injury criteria in lateral collisions when an APROD dummy is used. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). November 1-4, 1982; Kyoto, Japan.314-320.

1982

Almqvist R, Mellander H, Koch M. Frontal crash protection in a modern car concept. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). November 1-4, 1982; Kyoto, Japan.154-163.

1982

Norin H, Nilsson-Ehle A, Gustafsson C. Volvo Traffic Accident Research System as a tool for side impact protection evaluation and development. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). November 1-4, 1982; Kyoto, Japan.439-448.