Search Results

A vehicle sometimes pulls to one side during traveling straight. This is caused by lateral disturbance, such as road contour, suspension alignment error and tire properties. This paper describes a new algorithm of reducing steering pull by using electric power steering system(EPS). It is shown that the disturbance can be cancelled with EPS motor torque. The amount of the torque is equal to the steady driver's torque to keep the vehicle straight driving. It is estimated by using statistic method. We validate our study by driving test conducted with an actual vehicle.

Vehicle's dynamic pre-crash state and associated occupant motion may influence the damage and injury of traffic accidents. Therefore it is important to simulate phenomena before and after impact continuously in order to analyze the damage mechanisms of traffic accidents. In this study, a finite element vehicle model that can simulate both running and crash is developed and verified by some experimental results, and the methods to speed up and stabilize computation that enable continuous simulation are developed and compared with conventional methods. A numerical example that simulates a real traffic accident situation is also shown.

With SUVs and minivans accounting for a larger share of the US market in the past decade, rollover accidents have drawn greater attention, leading to more active research from different perspectives. This ranges from investigations for elucidating the basic causes and mechanisms of rollover accidents to studies of more advanced occupant protection measures. As the phenomenon of a rollover accident is longer in duration than frontal, side or rear impacts, it is relatively difficult [1] to simulate such accidents for experimental verification and also for proper evaluation of occupant restraint system performance. In this work, we focused on the trip-over type, which occurs most frequently, and performed simulations to reproduce real-world rollover accidents by combining PC-Crash and FEA. Soil trip-over simulation was carried out based on real world accidents.

In a frontal automotive crash, the driver's foot is usually stepping on the brake pedal as an instinctive response to avoid a collision. The tensile force generated in the Achilles tendon produces a compressive preload on the tibia. If there is intrusion of the toe board after the crash, an additional external force is applied to the driver's foot. A series of dynamic impact tests using human cadaveric specimens was conducted to investigate the combined effect of muscle preloading and external force. A constant tendon force was applied to the calcaneus while an external impact force was applied to the forefoot by a rigid pendulum. Preloading the tibia significantly increased the tibial axial force and the combination of these forces resulted in five tibial pylon fractures out of sixteen specimens.

A finite element human model has been developed to simulate occupant behavior and to estimate injuries in real-world car crashes. The model represents an average adult male of the US population in a driving posture. Physical geometry, mechanical characteristics and joint structures were replicated as precise as possible. The total number of nodes and materials is around 67,000 and 1,000 respectively. Each part of the model was not only validated against human test data in the literature but also for realistic loading conditions. Additional tests were newly conducted to reproduce realistic loading to human subjects. A data set obtained in human volunteer tests was used for validating the neck part. The head-neck kinematics and responses in low-speed rear impacts were compared between the measured and calculated results. The validity of the lower extremity part was examined by comparing the tibia force in a foot impact between the test data and simulation results.