Basic parameters that determine the occupant injury gravity, in
a side crash are speed and the hit sidewall hardness. These two
parameters are intimately linked together, and a full-scale
reconstitution of a lateral collision does not permit their
separation easily.
A method is presented in this paper that uses a subsystem-type
test arrangement, reproducing the physical lateral shock sequence
while having the two parameters separated. It then becomes possible
to show the role played by different elements involved in a
real-life impact: impacting vehicle deformable front end part;
impacted vehicle structure at the door inner panel, where
deformability plays an energy-absorbing role; and impacted vehicle
structure at the body side, where side speed is
rigidity-dependent.
As a result of these tests, a subsystem test procedure should
take into account the impacted vehicle side structure rigidity, and
use a flexible prop fixed to the body, for the impact phase with a
side impactor.