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This study demonstrates the use of pressure sensing technology to predict the crash severity of frontal impacts. It presents an investigation of the pressure change in the front structural elements (bumper, crush cans, rails) during crash events. A series of subsystem tests were conducted in the laboratory that represent a typical frontal crash development series and provided empirical data to support the analysis of the concept. The pressure signal energy at different sensor mounting locations was studied and design concepts were developed for amplifying the pressure signal. In addition, a pressure signal processing methodology was developed that relies on the analysis of the air flow behavior by normalizing and integrating the pressure changes. The processed signal from the pressure sensor is combined with the restraint control module (RCM) signals to define the crash severity, discriminate between the frontal crash modes and deploy the required restraint devices.

This work presents a study of crash energy and severity in frontal offset Vehicle-To-Vehicle (VTV) crash tests. The crash energy is analyzed based on analytical formulations and empirical data. Also, the crash severity of different VTV tests is analyzed and compared with the corresponding full frontal rigid barrier test data. In this investigation, the Barrier Equivalent Velocity (BEV) concept is used to calculate the initial impact velocity of frontal offset VTV test modes such that the offset VTV tests are equivalent to full frontal impact tests in terms of crash severity. Linear spring-mass model and collinear impact assumptions are used to develop the mathematical formulation. A scale factor is introduced to account for these assumptions and the calculated initial velocity is adjusted by this scale factor. It is demonstrated that the energies due to lateral and rotational velocity components are very small in the analyzed frontal VTV tests.