Australian research to develop a vehicle compatibility test

Abstract

Frontal crashes cause the majority of serious injury and fatalities on the roads. The main goal in improving vehicle compatibility is to design vehicle front structures to maximise the interaction of vehicles with different architecture. Only by guaranteeing good structural interaction can the crush structures of opposing vehicles be used up efficiently. As more research is being carried out, it is becoming clear that whatever test is developed must introduce vertical and lateral shear into the vehicle front structure. The Renault Progressive Deformable Barrier (PDB) [1] has upper and lower load paths of different stiffnesses. These load paths also get progressively stiffer (by chemically etching the honeycomb) as the PDB is crushed. This is aimed at testing the vertical connections between the upper and lower load paths of a vehicle's front structure. However, the lateral stiffness of each of the PDB's load paths is constant. Therefore an offset test is proposed to induce lateral shear into the vehicle. After ensuring good structural interaction, the question of managing the different kinetic energies of vehicles of various masses must be considered. The basic requirement is that lighter vehicles need to be capable of managing the kinetic energy of the heaviest crash partner for which a compatibility test aims to provide protection at a given test speed. This will require design adjustments for both small and large vehicles. The assessment method may involve injury criteria, limitations on interaction force, PDB crush profile or some combination of these. In addition to a compatibility test, a separate self-protection test is required to ensure that heavy vehicles are not made too soft and light vehicles are not made too stiff. This will prevent the trade off of intrusion injuries for deceleration injuries in vehicles of different sizes. It is suggested this be the full frontal rigid barrier test specified in Australian Design Rule 69/00. This paper details the research done by the Australian Department of Transport and Regional Services to examine the feasibility of this proposal for a compatibility test. The research has been done in partnership with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Subaru and Ford.