Rear Override Impact Analysis of Full-Size and Light Duty Pickup Trucks for Crash Reconstruction

The rear override crash behavior of full-size and light duty pickup trucks was examined. A series of ten full-scale, front and rear override impact crash tests were conducted involving four full-size pickup trucks, two light duty pickup trucks, and one sport utility vehicle (SUV). The tests were conducted utilizing a fabricated steel rigid barrier mounted on the front of the Massive Moving Barrier (MMB) test device with full overlap of the test vehicle. Crush ranged from 25.0 to 77.9 inches for impact speeds of 21.7 to 36.0 mph. These override tests on pickups were conducted to provide more basis in an area that is underrepresented in the literature. Each test was documented and measured prior to, and following, the crash test. The stiffness parameters were calculated and presented using constant stiffness, force saturation, and the power law damage models. For the constant stiffness model, the trend line passed through the ten rear impact tests reported and had an X₀= 30 inches and K₀= 4 lbf/in². The crash performance data of the rear of the pickups tested was compared to that of the NHTSA’s frontal test data for the same vehicles and were found to be nearly twenty times less. The analyses of these override crash tests provide fundamental stiffness values in an area that is deficient while providing a comparison with other similar full-scale crash tests.