Numerical Investigations of the Positive Effects of Vehicle Dynamics Control Systems on Vehicle Crash

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of vehicle dynamics control systems (VDCS) to mitigate vehicle collisions in case of offset frontal vehicle-to-barrier crash scenario. A unique six-Degree-of-Freedom (6-DOF) vehicle dynamics/crash mathematical model is developed and analysed in this paper. The model is used to define the vehicle body crash parameters by integrating a vehicle dynamics model with a vehicle front-end structure model. In this model, the anti-lock braking system (ABS) and the active suspension control system (ASC) are co-simulated with the full car vehicle dynamics model and integrated with the front-end structure. The associated equations of motion of the model are developed and solved numerically. In this study, different crash scenarios are simulated with different cases of VDCS to investigate their influences on the vehicle collision improvement. ABS, ASC, and anti-pitch control (APC) systems as well as an under pitch control (UPC) technique are applied in this paper, and their results are compared with free rolling crash scenarios. This study shows that the vehicle dynamics/crash response is captured and analysed quickly and accurately. Furthermore, it is shown that the VDCS affect the crash characteristics positively.