Finite Element Approach to Identify the Potential of Improved Heavy-Truck Crashworthiness and Occupant Protection in Frontal Impacts

Abstract

Interior crash protection has not yet received adequate attention for heavy trucks, as such protection did for automobiles. The goal of this pilot project was to determine the nature of truck crashes that would remain after full deployment of advanced collision avoidance technologies and to assess the crashes with respect to truck driver injury and prevention. Heavy-truck occupant safety was analyzed according to injury pattern and severity to help identify and characterize heavy-truck crashes to define opportunities for improved truck crashworthiness and reduce truck driver fatalities and injuries. A finite element (FE) model combining heavy-truck cabin structure, interior components, dummy, and passive restraint systems was developed to simulate a head-on crash into a rigid barrier at 35 mph, the impact conditions used with the NHTSA new car assessment program test. This crash also represented an impact condition that was overrepresented in real-world crash data and for which there was room for improvement in occupant safety. A full FE tractor semitrailer model was employed to collect the crash pulse resulting on the truck cab as outcome of the computer simulation, which was then applied to defined locations of the FE cab model. Acceleration data were collected from impact of different parts of the dummy with interior components of the occupant compartment to assist in the calculation of body injury levels. The researchers developed a comparative risk study to evaluate the effectiveness of passive safety restraints, which would lead to preliminary guidance on the effectiveness of the use of such occupant injury mitigation systems.