Data From Five Staged Car-To-Car Collisions and Comparison With Simulations

Document Number: 2000-01-0849

Date Published: March 2000

Author(s):
Mark Bailey - Macinnis Engineering Associates, Ltd.

Abstract:
Five collisions were staged in order to evaluate PC- Crash, a simulation program used for investigating motor vehicle collisions. Both vehicles were moving in all of the staged collisions at 1:1 or 2:1 speed ratios. Pre- impact speeds ranged from 19 to 56 km/h.

Two separate methods were used to test the validity of the simulation program. Firstly, collision parameters were calculated from measured data, and used as input to the PC- Crash collision model. Secondly, the post-impact vehicle paths and rest positions were used to determine the pre- impact speeds.

There was agreement between measured and simulated collision dynamics. Using the PC-Crash "Optimizer" to reconstruct the five collisions, the error in calculated pre-impact speeds of the ten vehicles ranged from -3.3 to +4.1 km/h.

Vehicle speeds were determined based on post-impact rotation and paths, without detailed information on the braking from each wheel or the actual collision coefficient of restitution.

File Size: 3385K
Product Status: In Stock

See other papers presented at SAE 2000 World Congress, March 2000, Detroit, MI, USA, Session: Accident Reconstruction: Simulation & Animination (Part C&D)

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