Technical Paper
Vehicle Crash Test Data Acquisition - A Review of Requirements, Technologies and Standards
2009-04-20
2009-01-0054
This paper discusses the current and future demands and requirements placed on crash test Data Acquisition Systems (DAS) and the technologies available to address these demands. A full vehicle crash test today can require 250 to 350 sensors (not including the channels in a crash barrier load wall) and the complexity, size and mass of traditional DAS has many crash labs adopting alternate data acquisition strategies. Consumer information programs like EuroNCAP are putting four or more dummies in their tests, and the newer dummy designs have additional sensors for advanced injury assessment. The use of computer simulation models, while reducing the number of physical crash tests, has required additional and unique sensors in the dummies and vehicle to generate critical data for validation of the models. These new sensors include angular rate and optical deflection measurements.