Five collisions were staged in order to evaluate PC-Crash, a simulation program used for investigating motor vehicle collisions. Both vehicles were moving in all of the staged collisions at 1:1 or 2:1 speed ratios. Pre-impact speeds ranged from 19 to 56 km/h.
Two separate methods were used to test the validity of the simulation program. Firstly, collision parameters were calculated from measured data, and used as input to the PC-Crash collision model. Secondly, the post-impact vehicle paths and rest positions were used to determine the pre-impact speeds.
There was agreement between measured and simulated collision dynamics. Using the PC-Crash "Optimizer" to reconstruct the five collisions, the error in calculated pre-impact speeds of the ten vehicles ranged from-3.3 to +4.1 km/h.
Vehicle speeds were determined based on post-impact rotation and paths, without detailed information on the braking from each wheel or the actual collision coefficient of restitution.