Application of a Generalised Frontal Crush Model of the Car Population to Pole and Narrow Object Impacts

This paper examines the deformation patterns of car fronts involved in both narrow object and offset frontal collisions and shows that the car side or sides not involved in direct crushing are pulled towards the centre of the car about a hinge point located 0.32 of the overall length to the rear of the front of the car. This corresponds with the location of the front of the car door/front bulkhead. The resulting crush profiles can be represented by simple geometric shapes. These are combined with a previously derived Specific Energy Absorption representation for the overall car population and applied to narrow object and pole impacts with car fronts. When compared with 19 staged pole impacts carried out by NHTSA high correlation is obtained and it is shown that the 95% confidence limits for calculated speed is +/- 9 km/hr.