A causal model of crash test pulses: effect of impact speed on deformation and other variables

Abstract

Consider crash tests in which a car strikes a solid block. Suppose there is a particular differential equation (that includes a term in deformation to the power n) relating acceleration at any instant to deformation and velocity at that moment. If that is the case, the dependencies on impact speed of maximum acceleration, duration of impact and deformation are interconnected: the relationships are power functions, and the exponents are all determined by the exponent n in the differential equation. Data from both tests and real crashes suggest that n is about 0.5 for front wheel drive cars.

Keywords:

• Crash testing
• deformation
• maximum acceleration

Acknowledgements

The Centre for Automotive Safety Research, University of Adelaide, is supported by both the South Australian Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure and the South Australian Motor Accident Commission. The views expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Adelaide or the sponsoring organizations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.