<p>Vehicle accidents are still a leading contribution to accidental deaths in the United States.&nbsp; Even when fatalities are avoided, vehicle accident outcomes may contribute to loss of functional years and economic cost.&nbsp; Vehicle crashworthiness is the characteristic of a motor vehicle which determines the degree to which occupant protection is achieved in that vehicle in a particular accident.&nbsp; Vehicle aggressiveness or sportiness of a motor vehicle is the characteristic which may influence the degree to which injury is inflicted upon the occupants with which it collides in a particular crash configuration.&nbsp; Fleet compatibility is the characteristic of a particular motor vehicle which determines the degree to which protection is achieved for occupants in that vehicle for occupants in all other vehicles with which that vehicle may collide. The compatibility of a particular vehicle within the fleet may vary based on regional factors.&nbsp; The&nbsp;“delta-V” of an accident is often used to evaluate the severity of the impact.&nbsp; All of these characteristics of a vehicle’s crash survivability are often examined by reference to standard testing such as the Fixed Rigid Barrier (FRB), principal direction of the force (PDOF), and calculations of the Barrier Equivalent Velocity (BEV).&nbsp; These damage energy methods are often derived from testing that is not based on full vehicle loading conditions.&nbsp; Furthermore, vehicle manufacturers and regulatory agencies tend to conduct crash tests at standardized speeds and vehicle masses.&nbsp; These regulatory agencies, manufacturers, and accident reconstructionist are aware that differences in cargo loading effect crash kinematics and current research has been geared towards quantifying how they effect occupant outcomes.</p><p>This paper demonstrates that at a particular speed, increases in the vehicle cargo weight can influence the magnitude of the vehicle deformation.&nbsp; Larger deformations may involve greater intrusion into the occupant space.&nbsp; This increased intrusion may adversely affect the injury potential for the occupant by reducing survivable space and overcoming safety features.&nbsp; Additionally, an accident reconstructionist may need to consider the differences in cargo loading and distribution when calculating specific accident characteristics in their analyses.&nbsp; Examples of this increased occupant space intrusion in real world case studies is presented along with the calculations of the equivalent BEV with varying vehicle cargo characteristics.&nbsp; The calculations were validated using HVE analysis software by simulating impacts of vehicles with varying cargo loads; HVE was also used in order to visualize the concepts described above.&nbsp; The case studies will have approximately similar BEV’s, crash speeds, and other vehicle characteristics.</p>

Increased Vehicle Intrusion as a Result of Vehicle Weight

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

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