Elastic Properties of Selected Vehicles

Currently, there are very little data on the maximum crush experienced by vehicles during impact. Measurements of the maximum crush were made on selected vehicles to provide some insight on the amount of maximum crush during a collision and the extent of elastic rebound. Fourteen low speed barrier impacts were conducted at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and University of British Columbia (ICBC-UBC) test facility. In addition twelve measurements of maximum crush were obtained from Transport Canada high speed motion films of 30 mph impacts. To bolster the data, a paper by Hight provided thirty-three maximum crush measurements at impact speeds of 35 mph and one test at 40 mph. The combined data provided maximum crush information over a wide spectrum of impact speeds. The elastic crush which is the difference between maximum and residual crush was also determined.

The amount of elastic crush on vehicles and the variation of elastic crush with residual crush was examined. Also, the elastic crush was expressed as a ratio of residual crush to maximum crush to more clearly delineate trends. One vehicle model was isolated and tested over a wide range of impact speeds.