INFLUENCE OF BODY INTRUSION AND DECELERATION ON OCCUPANT INJURIES IN FRONTAL COLLISIONS BETWEEN PASSENGER CARS

In this paper, the results from a matrix of tests performed to evaluate the response of the occupant injuries in collisions between passenger cars at 55 km/h are reviewed. Various crash tests were conducted with different vehicle weights and stiffness to investigate the effect of body intrusion and vehicle deceleration on occupant injuries.

Some cases showed high intrusion which resulted in high occupant injury. Conversely some cases exhibited severe body deceleration which resulted in high occupant injury. In the cases with severe body deceleration, the body intrusion was almost the same as a 64 km/h ODB test but the injuries occur because the body deceleration is much greater in the car-to-car collision than the ODB test.

To assess vehicle compatibility, an MDB test method is proposed which is one of the representative test methods of real world car-to-car accidents.