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This paper describes the results of a study conducted to evaluate the performance and accuracy of a medium size sedan finite element model for off-set car-to-car impacts. This model was originally developed for front impact and does not include side structure compliance. Two tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are used for evaluation of the simulations. The overall results indicate that the simulations appear to be consistent with the crash test data. Problems associated with the use of node constraints, lack of side structure model fidelity, and the different integration time marching are identified and solutions for the problems are proposed.

This paper reports on the status of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) research program on Improved Frontal Protection. The program is in the problem determination phase. Accident analysis is being conducted to predict the injury producing crash environment for occupants with air bags, to determine appropriate test conditions, dummy sizes and injury measures, and to predict potential benefits. The interim findings are reported here; however the more complete analysis will be in a subsequent Problem Determination report to the agency. Collinear and oblique, frontal, offset crash testing, at different widths of overlap, has been conducted with a standard “bullet” car into several current model “target” cars at speeds of about 60 to 65 kmph for each car. Dummy injury measurements and structural responses provide a basis for determining the most severe impact environment. At present, the Hybrid III with additional instrumentation is the surrogate of choice.

This paper presents some current methods of evaluating vehicle aggressivity. Current methods under development include the use of a honeycomb front impact barrier which measures loads across the vehicle frontal area. Analytical methods are also available to model a combination of vehicles in frontal collisions and the associated occupant responses. In addition, a theoretical method is presented to measure aggressivity. The new methodology also uses a deformable barrier in frontal impact testing. This barrier, however, is modeled to represent a non-aggressive vehicle, used as a standard against which aggressivity characteristics of all cars can be measured.