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Accurately reconstructing the speed of a yawing and braking vehicle requires an estimate of the varying rates at which the vehicle decelerated. This paper explores the accuracy of several approaches to making this calculation. The first approach uses the Bakker-Nyborg-Pacejka (BNP) tire force model in conjunction with the Nicolas-Comstock-Brach (NCB) combined tire force equations to calculate a yawing and braking vehicle's deceleration rate. Application of this model in a crash reconstruction context will typically require the use of generic tire model parameters, and so, the research in this paper explored the accuracy of using such generic parameters. The paper then examines a simpler equation for calculating a yawing and braking vehicle's deceleration rate which was proposed by Martinez and Schlueter in a 1996 paper. It is demonstrated that this equation exhibits physically unrealistic behavior that precludes it from being used to accurately determine a vehicle's deceleration rate.

PC-Crash™, a widely used crash analysis software package, incorporates the capability for modeling non-constant vehicle acceleration, where the acceleration rate varies with speed, weight, engine power, the degree of throttle application, and the roadway slope. The research reported here offers a validation of this capability, demonstrating that PC-Crash can be used to realistically model the build-up of a vehicle's speed under maximal acceleration. In the research reported here, PC-Crash 9.0 was used to model the full-throttle acceleration capabilities of three vehicles with automatic transmissions - a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor (CVPI), a 2000 Cadillac DeVille DTS, and a 2003 Ford F150. For each vehicle, geometric dimensions, inertial properties, and engine/drivetrain parameters were obtained from a combination of manufacturer specifications, calculations, inspections of exemplar vehicles and full-scale vehicle testing.

Previous studies have reported and validated equations for calculating the lean angle required for a motorcycle and rider to traverse a curved path at a particular speed. In 2015, Carter, Rose, and Pentecost reported physical testing with motorcycles traversing curved paths on an oval track on a pre-marked range in a relatively level parking lot. Several trends emerged in this study. First, while theoretical lean angle equations prescribe a single lean angle for a given lateral acceleration, there was considerable scatter in the real-world lean angles employed by motorcyclists for any given lateral acceleration level. Second, the actual lean angle was nearly always greater than the theoretical lean angle. This prior study was limited in that it only examined the motorcycle lean angle at the apex of the curves. The research reported here extends the previous study by examining the accuracy of the lean angle formulas throughout the curves.

PC-Crash is a vehicular accident simulation software that is widely used by the accident reconstruction community. The goal of this article is to review the prior literature that has addressed the capabilities of PC-Crash and its accuracy and reliability for various applications (planar collisions, rollovers, and human motion). In addition, this article aims to add additional analysis of the capabilities of PC-Crash for simulating planar collisions and rollovers. Simulation analysis of five planar collisions originally reported and analyzed by Bailey [2000] are reexamined. For all five of these collisions, simulations were obtained with the actual impact speeds that exhibited excellent visual agreement with the physical evidence. These simulations demonstrate that, for each case, the PC-Crash software had the ability to generate a simulation that matched the actual impact speeds and the known physical evidence.

Many motorcycle crashes involve the motorcycle capsizing, impacting the ground, and sliding on the road surface. When performing speed calculations, the energy or speed loss for the ground impact and sliding phases may need to be calculated. To perform these calculations, the reconstructionist will typically determine the slide distance based on the physical evidence and then apply a range of decelerations over that distance based on test data in the literature. Decelerations can be selected for motorcycles with similar characteristics (crash bars, panniers, fairings, etc.) sliding on similar surfaces (asphalt, concrete, dirt, gravel, etc.). This approach is adequate but sometimes results in a wide range due to the variability in reported decelerations in prior studies. It could be helpful to narrow the likely range of decelerations, and thus, the speed range.