The Effect of Crashworthiness Parameter Variation on ESV Weight

Improved vehicle safety and increased vehicle weight are closely related and critical parameters. The capability of analytically relating vehicle crashworthiness and weight variation is necessary in order to apply a systems engineering approach to the overall vehicle weight problem. This has been accomplished at AMF by the development and use of an on-line user-oriented computer program to obtain vehicle weight as a function of crashworthiness parameter variation.

The results of a crashworthiness-weight tradeoff study performed for an optimized experimental safety vehicle (ESV) design are reported in this paper. The analytical model and computer program are presented and discussed.