Automotive active safety

The report represents the peculiarities of using intelligent airbags in cars. A review is made of the sensors used to activate the airbag system in terms of their advantages and disadvantages. Presented are software applications using the capabilities of the hardware of sensor devices in order to build a common signal. Based on a study of literature is developed a software sensor for airbag deployment depending on the object on passenger seat. The work of this sensor is studied in case of interrupted any of the input signals. The results show that by combining data from three hardware sensors is received error up to 5% in distinguish between the objects on the passenger seat of the car. The dropping of the signal in hardware sensors affects the accuracy of i dentifying the object on the passenger seat.

In low speed collisions, insurance cost is a factor which is taken into account as a design criterion to reduce structure damage and fixing cost. In this study, it is focused on the applied permanent damages of vehicle frontal door caused by pole impacts. In the side impact, the side door beam is responsible to absorb the most possible kinetic energy. Two significant parameters including material and geometry of a side door beam are discussed here to reduce permanent damage of the door. To study the effect of material as the first phase, six different sheets of material have been concerned to investigate the rigidity of the structure. For the second phase, geometry modification of the side door beam has been performed via creating new CAD-reinforcing ribs. Consequently, the strength in elasto-plastic mode, maximum deflection and plastic strain of the equipped system representing the permanent damage is obtained in order to achieve lower losses.

Transport Canada conducted a study of the accident performance of light trucks and vans (LTV) in the early 1980's. Since this period, several trends have evolved which warrant a review of the evaluation, compliance and performance of existing safety standards. LTV vehicles have captured a much larger market share, are used for a wider variety of purposes, and have undergone radical redesigns which create unique safety concerns (e.g., large sliding doors, inboard facing seats, removable seats, large areas of glazing, etc.). In response to the concerns noted above, Transport Canada and the University of New Brunswick Accident Investigation Team initiated a three year Level IV study of late-model sport utility vehicles, light trucks, and mini-vans which concluded in April 2000. This paper serves as a summary of findings for the study, which covers 106 in-depth case investigations. Although the data are limited, a number of trends are noted which suggest that subjecting these classes of vehicles to the same safety standards as those designed for the passenger car fleet is deficient in some areas. Specific cases are described which exemplify common issues identified by the study. One of the most blatant deficiencies highlighted by the study is the frequent loss of integrity that results when rear or side glazing fails leaving large openings that expose passengers. Other issues cited include failures of rear cargo doors, seatbacks, window latches, excessive roof crush, vehicle incompatibility in multi-vehicle collisions, body panel retention, and driver mishandling of the vehicles. The paper concludes by identifying a number of recommendations for the continuation and expansion of the study of light truck and van collisions leading to the modification of federal safety standards.

Impact is one of the most important subjects which always have been considered in mechanical science. Nature of impact is such that which makes its control a hard task. Therefore it is required to adopt a safe and secure mechanism for transferring the impact to other vulnerable parts of a structure, when it is necessary. One of the best methods of absorbing impact energy is using Thin-walled tubes, where the tubes collapse under impact by absorbing energy, while this prevents the damage to other parts. Purpose of the present study is to survey the deformation and energy absorption of tubes with different type of cross section (rectangular or square) and with similar volumes, height, mean cross section, and material under different speed loading. Lateral loading of tubes are quasi-static type and in addition to the numerical analysis, also experimental experiment has been performed to evaluate the accuracy of the results. Results from the survey indicates that at the same conditions ...

Formula SAE® is one of several student design competitions organized by SAE International. In the Formula SAE events undergraduate and graduate students are required to conceive, design, fabricate and compete with a small, formula-style, race car. Formula SAE safety rules dictate a 7 m/s (or approximately 15.65 mph) frontal crash test for nose mounted impact attenuators. These rules are outlined in section B3.21 of the Formula SAE rule book. Development and testing methods of these energy absorbing devices have varied widely among teams. This paper uses real world crash sled results to research methods for predicting the performance of aluminum honeycomb impact attenuators that will comply with the Formula SAE standards. However, the resulting models used to predict attenuator performance may also have a variety of useful applications outside of Formula SAE. In this paper, various energy absorbers were mounted to a free rolling trolley sitting on top of a crash sled. The sled was launched so that the trolley with the attached attenuator was allowed to strike a rigid barrier. This resulted in a sudden deceleration measured by accelerometers attached to the trolley. The resulting deceleration from each impact attenuator was then correlated to predicted pulses from theoretical calculations. The lessons learned from extensive testing will be discussed including comparisons between size, shapes, and material properties of energy absorption devices. Additionally, a final theory will be presented describing the ideal way to predict impact attenuator performance. Ultimately it will be shown that, given a known geometry, material properties, and safety factor, the behavior of an impact attenuator can be predicted accurately enough that testing will only be needed as verification. This study will ultimately benefit all Formula SAE® teams, as it will help speed up development time and cut costs, while providing a proven method for creating attenuators that will perform to SAE standards.

Abstract With the continuous addition of new infotainment and driver assist features, In-Vehicle Infotainment systems (IVIs) are evolving to enhance convenience. However, balancing the system's output (information presentation) and input (vehicle controls) has become a major challenge for automotive companies. To address the complexity and information overload, many have shifted from physical controls to embedded digital touchscreens, raising questions about how far this transition should go. This shift from physical to digital interfaces presents both benefits and drawbacks. On one hand, digital touchscreens can increase driver distraction due to the visual load and eliminate haptic feedback and muscle memory. On the other hand, they offer flexibility and modern aesthetics. The primary research question was: What are the pros and cons of physical and digital interfaces from a user perspective? The secondary question focused on how the context of use (driving vs. non-driving) impacts user experience with each interface type. To explore these questions, this thesis investigated user satisfaction with both physical controls and digital touchscreens. Online user interviews and a literature review were conducted to assess the pros and cons of each interface in different contexts. The findings revealed that no single interface type is universally preferred. Users favored physical controls while driving, due to the haptic feedback and ease of use, but preferred digital interfaces in non-driving situations, due to their modern appeal and functionality. The study also revealed that user preferences varied based on behavior and attitudes, with early adopters perceiving digital interfaces as more trendy, while conservative users viewed physical interfaces as more reliable. These insights led to the development of design guidelines and a hybrid interface concept, blending physical and digital elements. The concept was evaluated and deemed a better solution than existing systems, though some refinements were suggested. The results provide a foundation for balancing physical and digital elements in future IVI designs. The design guidelines, developed from user needs and research findings, aimed to balance the strengths of physical and digital interfaces. These guidelines led to a conceptual UI design that combined physical controls for driving tasks with digital touchscreens for flexibility in non-driving contexts. The hybrid design was evaluated by both original participants and a wider audience, receiving positive feedback as an improvement over current systems. However, some aspects, like balancing ease of use with digital complexity, needed refinement. Overall, the guidelines, impact map, and evaluations represent progress toward more intuitive and user-friendly in-vehicle interfaces

The crash pulse in a vehicle-vehicle collision represents the variation of acceleration over time, from the moment of impact until the moment of zero velocity, or separation of the vehicles. The paper presents some methods and practices for the collection, retrieval, archival, and analysis of crash data, from crash tests and from real road events. The metrics used for crash evaluation, derived from the recorded crash pulse, include: maximum value of moving average acceleration, delta-v (the change in velocity), displacement, energy density, power rate density. Crash pulse based analysis can simplify the integration of crashworthiness into vehicle design. Data sources used by authors were mainly the crash tests performed at Transilvania University.

The data on car to car side impacts in Korea had increased every year from 67,105 cases in 2006 to 76,556 cases in 2011 by the Police Agency in Korea. In Korea, sales of mid-sized cars, large-sized cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) have increased since 2001. The ratio of vehicles over 1,400 kg represented 56% in 2010. The current test procedure for side impact in the Korean New Car Assessment Program (KNCAP) uses 950 kg moving deformable barrier (MDB). The current test method may not reflect the real world traffic conditions and vehicle populations in Korea. The study for improving the side impact test in KNCAP has been carried out. This study shows the test results of three sizes of vehicles (compact car, mid-sized car and large-sized car) using the current KNCAP MDB, 1,300 kg Advanced European Mobile Deformable Barrier (AE-MDB) and 1,500 kg AE-MDB. The ES-2 dummy is mounted on the driver’s and front passenger’s seat, and the SID-2 5th percentile female dummy is mounted on the...

In our days, simulation based development is a core element of vehicle engineering, especially considering highly automated or fully autonomous vehicles. Accordingly, the paper presents a benchmark of three different automotive simulators: PreScan, IPG CarMaker, and VTD Vires. The three software tools were applied for the same goal, namely, modelling the ZalaZONE Proving Ground of Hungary for vehicle testing. The paper aims to highlight the experiences while creating the virtual models by presenting and comparing the relevant software features and providing suggestions for scientific or practical application.

The experimental method used in a frontal crash of cars costs much time and expense. Therefore, numerical simulation in crashworthiness is widely applied in the world. The completed car models contain a lot of parts which provided complicated structure, especially the rear of car models do not contribute to behavior of frontal crash which usually evaluates injuries of pedestrian or motorcyclist. In order to save time and resources, a simplification of the car models for research simulations is essential with the goal of reducing approximately 50% of car model elements and nodes. This study aims to construct the finite element models of front structures of vehicle based on the original finite element models. Those new car models must be maintained important values such as mass and center of gravity position. By using condition boundaries, inertia moment is kept unchanged on new model. The original car models, which are provided by the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC), validated ...

for his continuous support and patience. His guidance helped me throughout my master's degree program. It has been a privilege to perform my duties as his Graduate Teaching Assistant, and this thesis would not have been successful without his valuable guidance. I also thank my esteemed committee members, Dr. Krishna Krishnan and Dr. Yimesker Yihun, for their helpful comments and suggestions. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my parents and to my siblings for their endless love and encouragement. My family is my strength and everything. I also thank my friends and the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Wichita State University for their constant support.

Efforts to improve the safety of a driver of a racecar that is involved in a crash have been ongoing for a number of years. The Wayne State University Bioengineering Center has examined issues related to motorsports injury for over a decade. The Center has tested polypropylene tubes, automotive tires, foam and other non-rigid materials configured in various patterns as energy absorbing barriers. Presently, the Bioengineering Center is participating in development of the SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reducing) barrier for racetrack outer walls by providing biomechanical analysis of crash dummy data from crash tests conducted by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Midwest Roadside Safety Facility. Associated with this effort is the examination of head and neck restraints such as the HANS (Head And Neck Support) device, seats with integrated headrests, and head net arrangements. Due to the high speeds attained during racing and the highly restrained nature of the driver, racecar drivers ...

In 2015, it has been reported that road traffic fatality rate in Thailand ranks number 2 in the world at 36.2 per 100,000 with an annual estimate of 66 deaths every day. Based on the survey of the Road Safety Group Thailand in 2017, at least one student got injury by school transport each day. A recent survey also revealed that the number of private hire pick-up trucks as school buses in Thailand, especially in upcountry areas, is increasing due to its lower cost in comparison to that of a van or a minibus. To get the optimal capacity as vans or minibuses, pick-up trucks’ roofs were converted for the highest passenger number at the lowest cost. Therefore, to focus on the strength of converted pick-up truck’s roof is required to help reduce losses in terms of both human injury and inside cabin’s damage due to rollover accidents. This article demonstrates an approach to design the vehicle’s roof as a superstructure of school pick-up truck based on design inputs, including structural s...

Efforts to improve the safety of a driver of a racecar that is involved in a crash have been ongoing for a number of years. The Wayne State University Bioengineering Center has examined issues related to motorsports injury for over a decade. The Center has tested polypropylene tubes, automotive tires, foam and other non-rigid materials configured in various patterns as energy absorbing barriers. Presently, the Bioengineering Center is participating in development of the SAFER (Steel And Foam Energy Reducing) barrier for racetrack outer walls by providing biomechanical analysis of crash dummy data from crash tests conducted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Midwest Roadside Safety Facility. Associated with this effort is the examination of head and neck restraints such as the HANS (Head And Neck Support) device, seats with integrated headrests, and head net arrangements. Due to the high speeds attained during racing and the highly restrained nature of the driver, racecar drivers are at particular risk to an injury known as basilar skull fracture. The risk of basilar skull fracture is increased as the neck axial tension force approaches 4100 N. This makes the axial tension load in the neck a critical measurement of safety device performance. The performance of head and neck restraints in crash sled tests using a Hybrid III 50 th percentile dummy and a NASCAR style buck subjected to a 50 g crash pulse over a duration of 60 msec was evaluated. It was found that a driver not fitted with a head and neck restraint could experience a neck axial tension of 4900 N. However, it was shown that with a HANS device the neck axial forces were kept below 1500 N. Furthermore, tests using actual racecars that were pulled into barriers showed that the HANS along with other technologies provided a level of safety that previously was unavailable. By keeping HIC below 700 and the neck tension below 4100N, the HANS device along with the SAFER barrier, and a proper head rest with a well positioned head net, have been shown to be effective in racecar crash tests at 150 mph and an angle of 20 degrees. This paper provides an overview of some of the more significant motorsports activities in which the Bioengineering Center is involved. Testing conducted during the development of the SAFER barrier is described. Included is a discussion of head and neck restraint system evaluation efforts.

Asia has the highest number of registered motorcycles globally, and the recent data has shown that motorcycles fatalities have been the main road death category in the Southeast Asian region. One of the major concerns is the visibility of motorcycles to other vehicles on the road. Thus, in this project, UN R46 and FMVSS regulations have been referred to as the base guidelines to establish a novel test protocol for vehicles rearward visibility assessment. Sixteen cars have been benchmarked and analysed in terms of their rear-view mirror (Class I) and external mirror (Class III) performance. Motorcycles visibility to the vehicles’ Class I and Class III mirrors also been assessed by converting the measured data into several motorcycles based on its width. A proposed performance scoring system for ASEAN NCAP has been developed based on that to address the Motorcycle Safety pillar.

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The increasing importance of advanced driver assistance systems is visible in the intensive development in this area of automotive OEMs as well as in research activities from nonautomotive companies. A well-known example of later activities is Google's self-driving car project, which works successfully towards a fully automated vehicle. The potential of advanced driver assistance systems to actively increase the safety of vehicles as well as the comfort of their passengers is currently discussed in many newspapers and reports in various TV programs. Therefore, it is likely that new passenger cars as well as heavy duty vehicles will be legally obliged to have certain Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) installed in the coming next years. As a step in this direction, the EU has required new cars to be equipped with an Electronic Stability Program (ESP) from 2011 onwards. Five years later, in 2016, emergency braking assistant systems will be mandatory for new heavy duty vehicles in the European Union. The OEMs have actively taken on this trend and equip new vehicle models with more and more advanced driver assistant systems. This development is driven by two main societal challenges: The increasing age of the population, especially in the western countries, and the continuing growth of the population on earth. Mobility is one of the biggest values of the western countries. This can be seen in the fact that many families, after buying a house or an apartment for living, spend the second largest amount of money on vehicles. As people get older, they want to keep the personal mobility they have been used to all their life. In order to keep the trend of fatalities decreasing, it is necessary to support elderly people when driving

for his continuous support and patience. His guidance helped me throughout my master's degree program. It has been a privilege to perform my duties as his Graduate Teaching Assistant, and this thesis would not have been successful without his valuable guidance. I also thank my esteemed committee members, Dr. Krishna Krishnan and Dr. Yimesker Yihun, for their helpful comments and suggestions. I would like to express my profound gratitude to my parents and to my siblings for their endless love and encouragement. My family is my strength and everything. I also thank my friends and the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Wichita State University for their constant support.

The main objective of this paper is to create computer crash models (up to the level of the Kelvin model, where the coefficient of stiffness and damping is calculated by implementing appropriate numerical methods: Trust - Region, Lavenberg-Marquardt and so on) of measured real data that are obtained at the frontal impact of a vehicle into the rigid barrier. The process of modeling a vehicle crash can be done in two ways. One of them is related to CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) software including FEA. The other one (applied in this article) is based on the System Identification Toolbox, which contains MATLAB® functions, Simulink® blocks, and a special app for constructing models of dynamic systems from the measured input-output data.

The crash pulse in a vehicle-vehicle collision represents the variation of acceleration over time, from the moment of impact until the moment of zero velocity, or separation of the vehicles. The paper presents some methods and practices for the collection, retrieval, archival, and analysis of crash data, from crash tests and from real road events. The metrics used for crash evaluation, derived from the recorded crash pulse, include: maximum value of moving average acceleration, delta-v (the change in velocity), displacement, energy density, power rate density. Crash pulse based analysis can simplify the integration of crashworthiness into vehicle design. Data sources used by authors were mainly the crash tests performed at Transilvania University.

Frontal offset crash test, either regulator or NCAP, only focus on evaluating the primary impact during the collision phase. The rebound phase is not counted in the assessment. This study focused on the rebound phase. In this phase, vehicle will rotate to the side, causing occupant's head move toward the window door glass. At an impact velocity from 6 m/s to 9 m/s against tempered glass windows, HIC values can stand over a limit of 1000. However, the severity of the head injury cannot be evaluated in the offset collision test because the window glass winded down for the high speed camera recording purpose. The analysis from the video shows head are moving towards the b pillar and side windows glass during frontal offset crash test. The resultant head rebound velocities varies in the range of 4.63 to 10.18 metre per second.

In low speed collisions, insurance cost is a factor which is taken into account as a design criterion to reduce structure damage and fixing cost. In this study, it is focused on the applied permanent damages of vehicle frontal door caused by pole impacts. In the side impact, the side door beam is responsible to absorb the most possible kinetic energy. Two significant parameters including material and geometry of a side door beam are discussed here to reduce permanent damage of the door. To study the effect of material as the first phase, six different sheets of material have been concerned to investigate the rigidity of the structure. For the second phase, geometry modification of the side door beam has been performed via creating new CAD-reinforcing ribs. Consequently, the strength in elasto-plastic mode, maximum deflection and plastic strain of the equipped system representing the permanent damage is obtained in order to achieve lower losses.

The race for electrification and the need for innovation to attract customers has driven the automotive industry to do something different in vehicles, emerging emission control challenges and efficient technological availability are the pillars of innovation. With the need to upgrade industrial manufacturing systems, directly impacting vehicle production, established the search for new prototyping methodologies and use of virtual tools for testing, validation of components and vehicle systems are developed. The demand for electronic components control units (ECU) is growing, due to the availability of intelligence and security in today's vehicles, directly impacting their development and the performance and functionality tests. To meet this new reality, in addition to the automotive test prototypes used during development, the automotive industry has been using different virtual environments to produce, verify, and validate its vehicles. Therefore, this paper applied integratio...

The automotive domain is challenged by the increasing importance of Information Technology (IT) based functions. To show the possibilities of modern IT systems, a demonstrator car was developed in RACE (Robust and Reliant Automotive Computing Environment for Future eCars) based on a completely redesigned E/E architecture, which supports the integration of mixed-criticality components and offers features like Plug&Play. This paper presents the architecture and components of this vehicle prototype, which is equipped with modern systems such as Steer-by-Wire without mechanical fallback. It was designed to support future driver assistance systems, e.g. to carry out autonomous parking maneuvers onto an inductive charging station, a task, which is hard to achieve accurately enough for a human driver. Therefore, a special emphasis lies on the description of the sensor set for automated operation.

Automation is seen as one of the key technologies that considerably will shape our society and will sustainably influence future mobility, transportation modes, and our quality of life. Many benefits are expected ranging from reduced accidents, efficient people/freight/goods movement, effective multi-modal transport (on-road, off-road, sea, air), better road/vehicle utilization, or social inclusion. Beyond mobility, automation creates tremendous impact in production, health-care, and eventually our everyday life. In automotive, it is envisioned that automated driving technology will lead to a paradigm shift in transportation systems in terms of user experience, mode choices, and business models. Over the last couple of years, significant progress has been made in vehicle automation. Given the current momentum, automated driving can be expected continuously to progress, and a variety of products will become commercially available within a decade. Not only technological advancements have been demonstrated in many venues, several states and federal governments in Europe, the US, and in Asia have moved forward to set up regulations and guidelines preparing for the introduction of self-driving cars. However, despite tremendous improvements in sensor technology, high performance computing, machine learning, computer vision, data fusion techniques, and other system technology areas, market introduction of a fully automated vehicle that is capable of unsupervised driving in an unstructured environment remains a longterm goal. In order to be accepted by drivers and other stakeholders, automated vehicles must be reliable and significantly safer than today's driving baseline. The ultimate safety test for automated vehicles will have to point out how well they

The Center for Injury Research (CfIR) has developed methods to derive and correlate rollover dummy head-neck injury with National Automotive Sampling System/Crash Injury Research (NASS/CIREN) data. In this paper, these methods are applied to other accident modes. Specifically, the authors investigated the application of the dummy rollover head-neck modifications, as well as structural injury risk, IARV, momentum exchange injury measures and criteria to frontal, offset and small overlap frontal and side impact testing. Recently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has implemented a comprehensive series of component regulations (FMVSS 126, FMVSS 216, FMVSS 226) which, in combination, are intended to drastically reduce the number of crashes and occupant injury and fatalities in rollovers and other modes. However, the stiffness of the dummy neck and the disparity between Injury Assessment Reference Value (IARV) and momentum exchange injury measures were not addres...

The introduction of Automated Driving technologies is settling advanced software development to the automotive industry. This causes a clash between two highly different approaches for software based product development: the flexibility found in the ICT domain and the robustness of the automotive techniques. Coupling both approaches is also needed to achieve lower development costs and faster implementation in best-selling cars. The objective is then to develop a tool coupling both simulated perception inputs and real dynamic inputs allowing flexible development process at a lower cost. This tool can be compared to a virtual reality device to feed all the perception sensors of the vehicle while the vehicle is operating in a real environment (i.e. dynamic platform).

The automotive domain is challenged by the increasing importance of Information Technology (IT) based functions. To show the possibilities of modern IT systems, a demonstrator car was developed in RACE (Robust and Reliant Automotive Computing Environment for Future eCars) based on a completely redesigned E/E architecture, which supports the integration of mixed-criticality components and offers features like Plug&Play. This paper presents the architecture and components of this vehicle prototype, which is equipped with modern systems such as Steer-by-Wire without mechanical fallback. It was designed to support future driver assistance systems, e.g. to carry out autonomous parking maneuvers onto an inductive charging station, a task, which is hard to achieve accurately enough for a human driver. Therefore, a special emphasis lies on the description of the sensor set for automated operation.

The fusion of diverse sources of off-board and on-board data will play a crucial role in the design of the next generation of efficient powertrains and advanced driver assistance systems. Testing and validation is however challenging. AVL shows a highly frontloaded and reproducible office-to-rig-to-road approach, exemplified in the development of a traffic light assistant for an electric car.

Previously this author wrote an article about the "Dynosphere" (a.k.a. "Dynasphere") vehicle which was designed and built by Professor Dr. John Archibald Purves of Taunton, England, circa 1932; that article was published in the Spring 2011 Issue of Weight Engineering. This is a follow-up article about Ernest Fraquelli and his equally outrageous vehicle called the "Gyrauto". The Gyrauto differed from the Dynosphere in that the Dynospere consisted of just one big wheel, while the Gyrauto consisted of two big wheels side-by-side on a common axle-line. The idea behind both of these vehicles seems to have been to achieve unprecedented efficiency by reducing an automobile to its essentials, i.e., just one big wheel. This is not quite as foolish as it seems; much later Jack Northrop was to pursue an aeronautical analogy in that he was to conceive of an aircraft as just one big flying wing, and that dream was eventually realized in the success of the B-2 bomber.

An electric heavy quadricycle, categorized as an L7e vehicle, is an alternative solution for sustainable mobility with a lower carbon footprint and high energy consumption efficiency. However, accidental crashes of quadricycles with larger vehicle opponents can cause extensive damage to their structures and fatal injury to the occupants due to their geometry drawback in limited space in the front crumple zone. This work investigates the crashworthiness performance and safety assessment of the L7e vehicle under rigid wall crash tests and crash compatibility in car-to-car collisions with a sedan and an SUV. Crash scenarios are simulated using a nonlinear finite element analysis via LS-DYNA to evaluate structural crashworthiness and occupant injuries of a hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy. The compatible vertical alignment of the primary energy-absorbing structure substantially affects the safety of the quadricycle under a frontal crash. A secondary energy-absorbing component shoul...

In this work, a shock tower of a mid-size vehicle using steel (St)–aluminium (Al) hybrid-casting technology was developed with current shock towers as a benchmark. The use of this hybrid-casting technology, which features a ductile material connection between steel and cast aluminium, makes it possible to combine the design advantages of cast aluminium with the mechanical properties of high-strength steels. Based on this combination, a new shock tower concept was developed that offers advantages over the state of the art in terms of package, weight, stiffness and crash performance. To develop the new shock tower, connection points and package spaces in the periphery of the Honda Accord MY 2011 were analysed and defined. Based on quasi-static misuse load cases and topology optimization, it was possible to develop a load-compliant rib structure for the hybrid-cast shock tower reinforced by steel in the dome area. A so-called tension band for the IIHS small overlap crashworthiness eval...

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One of the main problems in appraiser work is to determine what speed the car could have immediately before the accident based only on the collision of car with an obstacle. One of the directions, leading to a solution to this problem is to analyze the energy needed to cause permanent deformation. Since the early 70s, was based on the method, consisting in depth analysis of permanent deformation, which says that the permanent deformation as proportional to the force causing deformation.

The increasing complexity of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) is making more difficult to perform the Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA). These items require high-performance Electronic Control Units (ECU) with extensive software functionalities. To correctly operate they interact with the driver, environment and other vehicle functions through high-speed in-vehicle networks, as well as a wide range of sensors and actuators. As a result, they implement complex behaviors whose outcome in presence of faults is not trivial to identify and classify as requested by the concept phase included in the most recent functional safety standards. In this paper we present a simulation-based methodology to perform the HARA of a vehicle function by mixing the usual industrial approach, based on the designers' knowledge, with one that makes use of a vehicle-level simulator. The simulation-based approach provides an automatic and systematic method to assess the complex interaction of the item under analysis with other vehicle functions in possibly complex operational situations, thus making the prediction of hazards easier. We choose to demonstrate the approach by applying it to a well-known automotive industry case study: an Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS). In this way, it is possible to analyze the effects of the function provided by the item, keeping into account the simulations results and comparing them to similar situations analysis available in literature. Thanks to the obtained simulation-based results, safety engineers can formulate a more objective hypothesis, in particular during the hazard classification subphase.

Inadequately restrained cargo is a problem in a wide range of vehicles, from passenger cars to heavy trucks. In a crash, the force needed to restrain the cargo is many times the weight of the cargo itself. In a passenger vehicle this means that the barrier between the cargo and the occupants must be capable of preventing the cargo from entering the passenger compartment. In heavy trucks, cargo restraints are generally used to prevent the shifting of cargo that could affect the stability of the truck and to keep the cargo on, or in, the truck during normal driving maneuvers.

This paper describes the development of a new, easy to handle and economic crash cushion for rigid obstacles to reduce occupant loads and injury risk during the impact. Out of different concepts and experimental crash tests of energy absorbing barriers a mixture of concrete and granulated plastics ('Styroporbeton') has led to the best results regarding car deceleration and intrusions. The improvement of occupant safety of this system is documented on the one side by comparing car deformation and acceleration behavior of crash tests with and without a crash cushion in front of a rigid barrier and on the other side by comparing the impact velocities of crash tests with and without crash cushion, causing similar car deformation. For instance the car deformation of a 95 km/h crash against the crash cushion can be compared with a crash against a rigid barrier with an impact velocity of 52 kph.

The focus of this thesis is on using advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) sensors available on newer year cars and applying them in a novel way to predict post-crash damage. This is split into three steps, first is to predict crush or intrusion on the exterior line using the accelerometer signal during impact. Next, using the array of parking sensors and the adaptive cruise control (ACC) radar, the impact location on the vehicle is predicted. Once the location and crush are determined, the final step is to combine the two to predict which parts are damaged on the car. To test this algorithm, publicly available crash test data is used for crush prediction and simulated ADAS data is used for location prediction. Parking sensor and ACC radar placement shows that location detection is more accurate for front and rear impacts than side impacts. Overall, there are more accurate finite element and lumped parameter models that can be used for crash prediction; however, this approach is ...

In this paper, the crash analysis was performed of upper body and sub frame for NEV electric car. NEV vehicle's front platform assembly behavior when subjected to a frontal crash is described in this article. The frontal crash of the integrated car system is successfully simulated in LS-DYNA. According to the basic principle of the dynamic non-linear finite element method, the basic crash describe equation and FE discretized equation are established.

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As Light weighting is the top priority for the automotive industry today, the push for reducing overall vehicle weight will likely include the consideration of materials that have not previously been part of mainstream vehicle design and manufacturing, including carbon fiber composites. Therefore, the deformation characteristics and crush performance of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and steel front bumper crush-can (FBCC) assemblies in Quarter-point Impact Tests are investigated in this article. The experimental tests in this study were conducted using a sled-on-sled testing method. Force-time histories, kinematic data and videos for each test were recorded using several high-speed cameras (HSCs), accelerometers and a load cell wall. The collected data was filtered with SAEJ211 CFC 180 filter and sorted to ease the comparative analysis for the performance of the steel and CFRP bumper assemblies. A similar pattern was observed in the crashworthiness characteristics (i.e. force-time history, force-displacement, crash pulse and deformation patterns) of all steel and CFRP FBCC specimens. Typical failure modes of composite bumper assemblies, which were revealed by the high-speed videos were the failure of crush-can and failure of the bumper beam due to the generation of high stresses as it gets stretched due to its curvature after hitting the sled. On the contrary, local permanent deformation of the beam and crush-can was the predominant failure mode in steel FBCCs assemblies under quarter-point loading. Results obtained from the comparative investigation show that CFRP is a more efficient yet lighter material in regard to the absorption of the impact energy.

To assess a car under the Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP), Adult Occupant Protection is one out of three parameters which need to be calculated with a weight factor of 50% while the other parameters, Child Occupant Protection and Pedestrian Occupant Protection, have a weight factor of 20%. The Pole Side Impact Test, beside two other tests, Side & Front Impact, is also required to calculate the Adult Occupant Protection. It shows how important the Pole Side Impact Test is and what an effective role it has in the car rating assessment. In this paper, the objective is to evaluate the effect of thickness on the energy absorbed by the side doors and the B pillar and its crashworthiness in a Pole Side Impact Test based on the Euro NCAP. In this matter, a vehicle model has been designed and prepared using CATIA and meshed using Hypermesh. Five thicknesses have been chosen including 0.6 mm, 1 mm, 1.2 mm, 1.4 mm and the original thickness of the side doors, 0.75 mm. The simulatio...

The article presents a new solution of child-resistant systems to improve the safety of children transported in motor vehicles subjected to a side impact during a vehicle crash. The proposed concept works by means of implementation of an energy dissipation mechanism acting between a child restraint system anchorage and a restraint system seat. The effectiveness of the proposed system is evaluated using numerical analyses of a simplified basic model as well as more complex mechanical design of the mechanism. The latter is analyzed as a part of the child restraint system (CRS) together with a deformable model of an anthropomorphic test device of Q3 series. Tests outcomes clearly show a positive effect of application of the proposed energy dissipation system resulting in reduction of head and thorax acceleration and influencing a lower factor (index) of the head injury criteria. The presented solution shows that there is still a room for improvement of young passengers safety.

This work reports on the simulation of three-wheel vehicles in the event of a side pole crash. In this study, the dynamic characteristics of the three-wheeler vehicle during pole collision were studied using finite elements. The TWV model used here was created using CATIA v5 and simulated using LS-DYNA which is widely used by the automotive industry to analyze vehicle design and predict a car’s behavior in a collision. Moreover, in this study, the finite element model of the side hybrid 5th percentile male dummy was developed for studying the driver and occupant responses in crash events of side pole. Based on the analysis results obtained from the existing model of TWV, modifications were made on the side structure by means of adding energy-absorbing components. Then, the modified TWV was analyzed under the same condition as the existing one. The result of the simulations shows that with the modification, 80 mm more living space, 630 N reduction of impact force, and 0.8 kJ of addit...

The driver fatality ratio (DFR) proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) demonstrates the relative fatality risks of occupants in various vehicle-to-vehicle (VtV) crashes. The readily available DFR is based on statistical crash data; hence, estimating the DFR of occupants for newer fleet of vehicles can be quite difficult. Three systematic methods such as the intrusion, deceleration and stiffness ratios of two colliding vehicles in side-impact accidents are proposed to estimate the DFR. A fleet of light trucks and vans (LTVs) striking a sedan car is reconstructed using the non-linear explicit code, LS-DYNA. The simulation results have shown that the intrusion and acceleration ratios-based approaches are in good agreement with the statistical DFR, whereas the DFR estimated using the stiffness-ratio based approach yielded poor agreement. The intrusion and acceleration ratios-based approaches are then utilized to formulate a combined DFR estimation model. In the second part of the study, the proposed methodology is carried further to estimate the DFR of occupants for a fleet of LTVs impacting a newer passenger car. The proposed methodology can be a viable tool for estimating the DFR for newer road vehicles and to improve its crash compatibility with collision partners.

To estimate the aggressivity of vehicles in frontal crashes, national highway traffic safety administration (NHTSA) has introduced the driver fatality ratio, DFR, for different vehicle-to-vehicle categories. The DFR proposed by NHTSA is based on the actual crash statistical data, which makes it difficult to evaluate for other vehicle categories newly introduced to the market, as they do not have sufficient crash statistics. A finite element (FE) methodology is proposed in this study based on computational reconstruction of crashes and some objective measures to predict the relative risk of DFR associated with any vehicle-to-vehicle crash. The suggested objective measures include the ratios of maximum intrusion in the passenger compartments of the vehicles in crash, and the transmitted peak deceleration of the vehicles' center of gravity, which are identified as the main influencing parameters on occupant injury. The suitability of the proposed method is established for a range of bullet light truck and van (LTV) categories against a small target passenger car with published data by NHTSA. A mathematical relation between the objective measures and DFR is then developed. The methodology is then extended to predict the relative risk of DFR for a crossover category vehicle, a light pickup truck, and a mid-size car in crash against a small size passenger car. It is observed that the ratio of intrusions produces a reasonable estimate for the DFR, and that it can be utilized in predicting the relative risk of fatality ratios in head-on collisions. The FE methodology proposed in this study can be utilized in design process of a vehicle to reduce the aggressivity of the vehicle and to increase the on-road fleet compatibility in order to reduce the occupant injury outcome.

The report represents the peculiarities of using intelligent airbags in cars. A review is made of the sensors used to activate the airbag system in terms of their advantages and disadvantages. Presented are software applications using the capabilities of the hardware of sensor devices in order to build a common signal. Based on a study of literature is developed a software sensor for airbag deployment depending on the object on passenger seat. The work of this sensor is studied in case of interrupted any of the input signals. The results show that by combining data from three hardware sensors is received error up to 5% in distinguish between the objects on the passenger seat of the car. The dropping of the signal in hardware sensors affects the accuracy of i dentifying the object on the passenger seat.

The increase in traffic flows on the roads causes an increase in road accidents. The study of the road safety deals on how to reduce the related phenomenon to non-pathological levels; to be able to operate correctly, much different information are needed. For some different levels of investigation of the phenomenon, only the incidental statistics may be necessary. To plan the interventions it needs information on the single incidents that occur in some areas. Each incident has some evolution characteristics that are repeated in a non-random manner, and these recurrences must be highlighted and studied to obtain effective countermeasures. The study methodologies of the road accidents maybe not only on their typology and imply the possibility of reconstruction, even if approximate, of the incident and its temporal phases of development. In some cases, it may also be necessary to evaluate the impact speed between vehicles. Some incident reconstruction techniques allow obtaining reliabl...