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PSA's views on compatibility: A potential two-step approach to improve compatibility among the vehicle fleet
Technical Paper
2001-06-0201
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
Up to now, self-protection was the main item car manufacturers
focused on for passive safety. But the improvements have led to
more aggressive vehicles in car-to- car impacts, and phenomena that
happen in these crashes are not well understood.
However it seems that good interaction is a prerequisite,
otherwise cars have to cope with loads they have not been designed
for.
PSA's proposal is to achieve car compatibility in two
steps.
The first step consists in dealing with the most important
problems:
- Improve geometrical compatibility with a test in which the
vehicle has to use the connections between its load paths in order
to create a good interaction surface with the barrier.
- Improve compartment stiffness - we are sure it will reduce the
risks of being crushed in case of incompatibility - by imposing a
minimum compartment resistance.
Front-end stiffness and energy absorption could then be put
under control in a second step when we have a better knowledge of
compatibility, and depending on the improvements obtained with the
first step.