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Traditional accident reconstruction analysis methodologies include the study of the crush-energy relationship of vehicles. By analyzing the measured crush from a vehicle involved in a real world accident and comparing it to a test vehicle with a known energy, from a crash test, the real world vehicle's damage energy can be evaluated. In addition, the change-in-velocity (Delta-V) can be calculated. The largest source of publicly available crash tests is from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA conducts numerous Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) compliance and New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) testing for many passenger vehicles for sale in the United States.

The rear override crash behavior of full-size and light duty pickup trucks was examined. A series of ten full-scale, front and rear override impact crash tests were conducted involving four full-size pickup trucks, two light duty pickup trucks, and one sport utility vehicle (SUV). The tests were conducted utilizing a fabricated steel rigid barrier mounted on the front of the Massive Moving Barrier (MMB) test device with full overlap of the test vehicle. Crush ranged from 25.0 to 77.9 inches for impact speeds of 21.7 to 36.0 mph. These override tests on pickups were conducted to provide more basis in an area that is underrepresented in the literature. Each test was documented and measured prior to, and following, the crash test. The stiffness parameters were calculated and presented using constant stiffness, force saturation, and the power law damage models.

Vehicle to vehicle sideswipe collisions may involve contact between a vehicle body and a contacting vehicle's rotating wheels, tires and lug nuts. During a sideswipe collision between a truck and an automobile it is not uncommon to see lug marks in the shape of consecutive damage loops or strikes on the side of the impacted vehicle. The damage loops or strikes are generated by the protruding lug nuts of the truck wheel as it passes by the impacted vehicle at a shallow angle. Additionally, rubber transfers due to contact with the tire sidewall and metal scraping from the wheel rim also leave distinctive shapes on the sides of the contacted vehicle body. The tire, rim, lug nut markings and associated damage manifest themselves as a special case of the epitrochoid and can be geometrically and mathematically described. Presented is a derivation of the equations that govern the lug, rim and tire positions and relative motions.