Search Results

Engineering Dynamics Corporation (EDC) recently updated the Human, Vehicle, Environment (HVE) software program to enable modeling of passenger cars and light trucks towing trailers. This paper reports on a comparison between the HVE EDSMAC4 collision module of the 3-dimensional computer simulation program and instrumented crash tests, in which one vehicle in each test was a pickup truck pulling a trailer. Use of the EDSMAC4 trailer model was found to provide better correlation between the simulation and test damage profiles, rest positions, vehicle trajectories, velocities, and Delta-V. It was also determined that the NHTSA-derived stiffness coefficients are sensitive to the impact configuration and depending on the impact configuration, it may be necessary to refine the coefficients according to the configuration.

In testing to determine the yaw oscillation response of a vehicle-trailer combination, the vehicle combination is driven in a straight line, at a specified speed; then a rapid, fixed-amplitude, short-duration pulse is applied to the steering wheel, while maintaining a constant speed. These requirements often result in multiple test runs to ensure an acceptable minimum variability in the damping ratio estimate for the vehicle-trailer combination. This paper investigates techniques for relieving the demands placed on the driver and for acquiring and processing the data required for analysis from this test. The testing used two different vehicle-trailer combinations, two different drivers, and an Automated Steering Controller (ASC). Damping ratio estimate comparisons were made between drivers, drivers and the ASC, transducers, data filtering, and calculation methods.