Required Measures to Improve the Structural Interaction Potential of Passenger-Cars 2005-01-1351

Compatibility has been a passive safety research issue for many years. Great advancements in secondary (passive) safety have been achieved in the last decades through focussing on the self-protection level provided by passenger cars. The next step is to consider the other vehicle involved in the collision as well. Compatibility relates to the simultaneous improvement of both self- and partner- protection. Several tests procedures have been proposed around the world to assess the compatibility of passenger cars. None are considered ready to be implemented.

This paper shows that controlling vehicle front-end geometry is the most feasible step to improve both self- and partner-protection. Through this, an increase in the structural interaction potential offered by passenger cars would result. To improve structural interaction, a convergence of front-end structures, to within certain vertical limits, is necessary. The required vertical width of a structural interaction zone is investigated in this paper, based on results to car-to-car, head-on crash-test simulations.

Based on conclusions drawn from the car-to-car, head-on crash simulations, a new compatibility assessment method and a vertical width for a structural interaction zone is proposed. The sufficient support test (SST) evaluates the degree of support provided by a vehicle within the structural interaction zone, based on barrier deformation.