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Engineering Dynamics Corporation (EDC) recently updated the Human, Vehicle, Environment (HVE) software program to enable modeling of passenger cars and light trucks towing trailers. This paper reports on a comparison between the HVE EDSMAC4 collision module of the 3-dimensional computer simulation program and instrumented crash tests, in which one vehicle in each test was a pickup truck pulling a trailer. Use of the EDSMAC4 trailer model was found to provide better correlation between the simulation and test damage profiles, rest positions, vehicle trajectories, velocities, and Delta-V. It was also determined that the NHTSA-derived stiffness coefficients are sensitive to the impact configuration and depending on the impact configuration, it may be necessary to refine the coefficients according to the configuration.

This paper describes a straight-forward, automated approach to performing sensitivity analyses using Monte Carlo simulation techniques. Probability distributions are assigned to key input parameters, and results are expressed in the form of probability distributions of each of the desired output parameters. With this technique, it is possible to obtain quantitative results regarding the probability of results being within selected ranges. The approach is fast and automated, and provides a rational basis for dealing with uncertainty and ranges of parameters in accident reconstruction analyses.