Search Results

An important component of the process of the reconstruction of a vehicle crash involves the modeling of the motion of the vehicle(s) before and after a collision. Depending on the conditions, this motion might be modeled using a vehicle dynamics simulation program. In the simulated dynamics of vehicle motion, the tire forces are the predominant means by which the path of the vehicle is determined, with aerodynamic loads being the other force acting on the vehicle. Recent literature on this topic investigated the effect of the steer angle of the front wheels on the postimpact trajectory of a light vehicle for a large initial angular velocity. This paper looks more broadly at the modeling of light vehicle postimpact motion using vehicle dynamics simulation but for a wider range of factors. Design of experiments (DOE) is used to rank the effect of various physical factors of vehicle postimpact motion.

Reconstruction of inline crashes between vehicles with a low closing speed, so-called “low speed” crashes, continues to be a class of vehicle collisions that reconstructionists require specific methods to handle. In general, these collisions tend to be difficult to reconstruct due primarily to the lack of, or limited amount of, physical evidence available after the crash. Traditional reconstruction methods such as impulse-momentum (non-residual damage based) and CRASH3 (residual damage based) both are formulated without considering tire forces of the vehicles. These forces can be important in this class of collisions. Additionally, the CRASH3 method depends on the use of stiffness coefficients for the vehicles obtained from high-speed crash tests. The question of the applicability of these (high-speed) stiffness coefficients to collisions producing significantly less deformation than experimental crashes on which they are generated, raises questions of the applicability.