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The manner in which a motor vehicle fire is initiated and subsequently spreads is dependent on a number of complex, interdependent, phenomena including combustion kinetics, heat transfer and fluid dynamics. Because the damage caused by a fire is coupled to these phenomena, damage patterns can sometimes be used to understand certain characteristics about the fire. In many cases, the goal is to determine the cause and origin of the fire.

Safety continues to be one of the most important factors in motor vehicle design, manufacturing, and marketing.  This course provides a comprehensive overview of these critical automotive safety considerations: injury and anatomy; human tolerance and biomechanics; occupant protection; testing; and federal legislation. The knowledge shared at this course enables participants to be more aware of safety considerations and to better understand and interact with safety experts. This course has been approved by the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction (ACTAR) for 18 Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

Photographs and video recordings of vehicle crashes and accident sites are more prevalent than ever, with dash mounted cameras, surveillance footage, and personal cell phones now ubiquitous. The information contained in these pictures and videos provide critical information to understanding how crashes occurred, and  analyze physical evidence. This course teaches the theory and techniques for getting the most out of digital media, including correctly processing raw video and photographs, correcting for lens distortion, and using photogrammetric techniques to convert the information in digital media to usable scaled three-dimensional data.

Frontal-crash sled tests were conducted to assess submarining protection and abdominal injury risk for midsized male occupants in the rear seat of modern vehicles. Twelve sled tests were conducted in four rear-seat vehicle-bucks with twelve post-mortem human surrogates (PMHS). Select kinematic responses and submarining incidence were compared to previously observed performance of the Hybrid III 50th-percentile male and THOR-50M ATDs (Anthropomorphic Test Devices) in matched sled tests conducted as part of a previous study. Abdominal pressure was measured in the PMHS near each ASIS (Anterior Superior Iliac Spine), in the inferior vena cava, and in the abdominal aorta. Damage to the abdomen, pelvis, and lumbar spine of the PMHS was also identified. In total, five PMHS underwent submarining. Four PMHS, none of which submarined, sustained pelvis fractures and represented the heaviest of the PMHS tested. Submarining of the PMHS occurred in two out of four vehicles.

Understanding left-turn vehicle-pedestrian accident mechanisms is critical for developing accident-prevention systems. This study aims to clarify the features of driver behavior focusing on drivers’ gaze, vehicle speed, and time to collision (TTC) during left turns at intersections on left-hand traffic roads. Herein, experiments with a sedan and light-duty truck (< 7.5 tons GVW) are conducted under four conditions: no pedestrian dummy (No-P), near-side pedestrian dummy (Near-P), far-side pedestrian dummy (Far-P) and near-and-far side pedestrian dummies (NF-P). For NF-P, sedans have a significantly shorter gaze time for left-side mirrors compared with light-duty trucks. The light-duty truck’s average speed at the initial line to the intersection (L1) and pedestrian crossing line (L0) is significantly lower than the sedan’s under No-P, Near-P, and NF-P conditions, without any significant difference between any two conditions.

With the current trend of including the evaluation of the risk of brain injuries in vehicle crashes due to rotational kinematics of the head, two injury criteria have been introduced since 2013 – BrIC and DAMAGE. BrIC was developed by NHTSA in 2013 and was suggested for inclusion in the US NCAP for frontal and side crashes. DAMAGE has been developed by UVa under the sponsorship of JAMA and JARI and has been accepted tentatively by the EuroNCAP. Although BrIC in US crash testing is known and reported, DAMAGE in tests of the US fleet is relatively unknown. The current paper will report on DAMAGE in NCAP-like tests and potential future frontal crash tests involving substantial rotation about the three axes of occupant heads. Distribution of DAMAGE of three-point belted occupants without airbags will also be discussed. Prediction of brain injury risks from the tests have been compared to the risks in the real world.

This title includes the technical papers developed for the 2023 Stapp Car Crash Conference, the premier forum for the presentation of research in impact biomechanics, human injury tolerance, and related fields, advancing the knowledge of land-vehicle crash injury protection. The conference provides an opportunity to participate in open discussion about the causes and mechanisms of injury, experimental methods and tools for use in impact biomechanics research, and the development of new concepts for reducing injuries and fatalities in automobile crashes.

This course introduces basic tire mechanics, including tire construction components based on application type, required sidewall stamping in accordance with DoT/ECE regulations, tread patterns, regulatory and research testing on quality, tire inspections and basic tire failure identification. The course will provide you with information that you can use immediately on-the-job and apply to your own vehicle. This course is practical in nature and supplemented with samples and hands-on activities.

This course highlights the technologies enabling ADAS and how they integrate with existing passive occupant crash protection systems, how ADAS functions perceive the world, make decisions, and either warn drivers or actively intervene in controlling the vehicle to avoid or mitigate crashes. Examples of current and future ADAS functions, and various sensors utilized in ADAS, including their operation and limitations, and sample algorithms, will be discussed and demonstrated. The course utilizes a combination of hands-on activities, including computer simulations, discussion and lecture.

This class will provide the student with the skills, knowledge, and abilities to interpret, analyze and apply HVEDR data in real-world applications. This course has been designed to build on the concepts presented in the SAE course Accessing and Interpreting Heavy Vehicle Event Data Recorders (ID# C1022). Advanced topics will include associating HVEDR data with collision events through timestamps, odometer logs, and data signatures, validating HVEDR speed data using specified vehicle parameters, performing time and distance analyses using HVEDR data, and correlating HVEDR data to physical evidence from the vehicle and roadway.

For automotive engineers involved in crash reconstruction and analysis, a knowledge of basic accident reconstruction principles and techniques is essential, but often insufficient to answer all of the questions posed by design engineers, regulators, and lawyers. This course takes participants beyond the basics of accident reconstruction to physical models and analysis techniques that are unique to the reconstruction of single-vehicle rollover crashes.

Uncrewed Aerial vehicles are useful for a multitude of applications in today’s age, covering a wide variety of fields such as defense, environmental science, meteorology, emergency responders, search and rescue operations, entertainment robotics, etc. Different types of aircrafts such as fixed wing UAVs, rotor wing UAVs are used for the mentioned applications depending upon the application requirements. One such category of UAVs is the lighter-than-air aircrafts, that provide their own set of advantages over the other types of UAVs. Blimps are among the participants of the lighter-than-air category that are expected to offer advantages such as higher endurance and range, and safer and more comfortable Human-machine-Interaction, etc. as compared to fixed wing and rotor wing UAVs due to their design. A ROS (Robot Operating System) based control system was developed for controlling the blimp.

A novel method for Single Event Effect (SEE) Radiation Testing using Built-In Self-Test (BIST) feature of indigenously developed Vikram1601 processor is discussed. The novelty is that the usage of BIST avoids need of exhaustive test vectors to ensure test coverage of all the internal registers and physical memory to store them. So processor is the only element vulnerable to radiation damage during testing. The test design was carried out at VSSC, Trivandrum and the testing was carried out at IUAC, Delhi. In the first part, a brief introduction, need and methods of radiation testing of electronics especially SEE of radiation on Silicon based devices, different radiation effects, radiation damage mechanisms and testing methods are described. A brief introduction to Vikram1601 processor, the instruction – TST, used as BIST and testing scheme implementation using TST for studying the SEE is explained.

Abstract : In any human space flight program, safety of the crew is of utmost priority. In case of exigency during atmospheric flight, the crew is safely and quickly rescued from the launch vehicle using Crew escape system. Crew escape system is a crucial part of the Human Space flight vehicle which carries the crew module away from the ascending launch vehicle by firing its rocket motors (Pitch Motor (PM), Low altitude Escape Motor (LEM) and High altitude Escape Motor (HEM)). The structural loads experienced by the crew escape system during the mission abort are severe as the propulsive forces, aerodynamic forces and inertial forces on the vehicle are significantly high. Since the mission abort can occur at anytime during the ascent phase of the launch vehicle, trajectory profiles are generated for abort at every one second interval of ascent flight time considering several combinations of dispersions on various propulsive parameters of abort motors and aero parameters.

Many technical projects, most vehicle and component testing, and all accident reconstructions, product failure analyses, and other forensic investigations, require photographic documentation. Roadway evidence disappears, tested or wrecked vehicles are repaired, disassembled, or scrapped, and components can be tested for failure. Photographs are frequently the only evidence that remains of a wreck, or the only records of subjects before or during tests. Making consistently good images during any inspection is a critical part of the evaluation process.