Impact induced vehicle residual deformation serves as a basis for the reconstruction engineer to make a determination of the energy absorbed during the impact phase of a collision. Many impact phase reconstruction algorithms assume a linear relation between an absorbed energy function and residual crush in order to derive collision severity (Delta V, BEV, etc.). This is done through the assumption of a constant spring stiffness value to describe the vehicle frontal impact stiffness. However, some recent rigid barrier impact test data has demonstrated non-linear trends between crash energy and residual crush. The total body of available crash test data indicates that vehicle frontal stiffness cannot be precisely modeled through the use of a single linear spring stiffness for all vehicles. This paper will explore stiffness trends and make comparisons to the previously assigned linear assumption for a diverse sample of vehicles and test speeds into frontal fixed barriers. The available crash test data is plotted and analyzed and the resulting linear and non-linear trends are discussed. Applications to the accident reconstruction field are also explored.


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    Title :

    An Analysis of Trends of Vehicle Frontal Impact Stiffness


    Additional title:

    Sae Technical Papers


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    International Congress & Exposition ; 1994



    Publication date :

    1994-03-01




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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