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Two Car Frontal Collisions: The Role of Car Mass, Collision Speed Distribution and Frontal Stiffness in Occupant Fatality and Injury
Technical Paper
2005-13-0007
Published September 21, 2005 by International Research Council on Biokinetics of Impact in Switzerland
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
There is controversy regarding the role of car mass in injury
and fatality risk in individual car-to-car collisions and for
overall car populations. In addition, the effect of frontal
stiffness on both the case and partner cars is disputed, and the
role of the distribution of collision closing speed has not been
adequately examined. In this paper empirical car crash
characteristics derived from onboard crash recorders are combined
with risk functions based on mean vehicle acceleration. The model
predictions closely match the available real-life data for frontal
collisions for the US (fatalities), Japan and Germany (AIS3+).
The model is used to predict the roles of case car mass,
population car mass, collision closing speed distributions and
frontal stiffness in relative vehicle safety. Results show that
increasing the 50 percentile car mass from 1200-1600 kg reduces the
AIS3+ injury to drivers by 4%, while decreasing the 50 percentile
care mass from 1200-800 kg increases overall risk by 15%. By
comparison, reducing the 99.99 percentile collision speed from
200-150 km/h reduces injury risk by 14%, but reducing the 50
percentile collision speed from 60-50 km/h reduces injury risk by
31%. Finally, a car population with the structural characteristics
of the 'soft' 50 percentile reduces injury risk by 23%.