Derivation and Validation of Velocity and Accelerations from Film Analysis of Barrier Crash Tests

Barrier crash testing is routinely performed with heavy reliance on data collected from electronic sources, supplemented by observational data from high speed films. High speed film analysis is usually performed to supplement and validate the displacements derived from the processing of electronic transducer data. This in itself is a useful tool, but other uses of film data have yet to be fully utilized. Until recent advancements in hardware and software, little reliance has been placed on film analysis as an independent source of data. Analysis of high speed film as a sole source of obtaining displacement, velocity and acceleration data is a valuable tool in that the measurement system is totally non-obtrusive (i.e., the kinematics of the system being measured are not potentially affected or altered by the camera system used for film analysis). For validation purposes, the results of film analysis are compared with electronic data for acceleration, velocity and displacement in the time domain. Variations in both methods of data collection are explored and the advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed.