The Need of Reproducing the Correct Distribution of Intrusions in the New Offset Deformable Frontal Impact Test

During the past twenty years, crashworthiness of passenger cars in frontal collisions improved significantly, giving a basic contribution to the reduction of accident fatalities and injuries.

Nowadays, extensive research are devoted to define a realistic test procedure in order to increase the proximity to road accidents.

Asymmetric offset frontal impact against a deformable barrier seems to be the most promising approach in order to reach the goal.

The present paper deals with the problem to reproduce the vertical distribution of intrusions in passenger compartments (between floor and facia level) in the correct way. This is a basic condition in order to obtain a deformation pattern similar to those found in real world accidents.

A set of tests using Fiat UNO vehicles was performed in order to analyse the effect of different barrier design parameters.