Technical Paper
Sled Test Development and Occupant Protection Evaluation Based on the Frontal Crash Response of Heavy Trucks
2014-09-30
2014-01-2423
Full-scale vehicle crash testing is an accurate method to reproduce many real-world crash conditions in a controlled laboratory environment. However, the costs involved in performing full-scale crash tests can be prohibitive for some purposes. Dynamic sled testing is a lower cost and widely used method to obtain multiple, useful data sets for development of frontal crash mitigating technologies, systems and components. Wherever possible, dynamic sled tests should use vehicle-specific deceleration pulses determined from full-scale vehicle crash tests. This paper establishes a dynamic sled test protocol based on data collected from eight full-scale heavy vehicle frontal crash tests. The sled test protocol is intended to be utilized as a basis for building a body of knowledge needed to update heavy vehicle frontal impact test recommended practices. These recommended practices provide direction for the development of frontal crash mitigating technologies, systems and components.