The improvement of side impact protection is today a major
concern to the crashworthiness community. A prerequisite for making
this development possible is the establishment of a common side
impact test method, representative of several traffic
environments.
Volvo has made a study aimed at determining the suitability of a
moving barrier test as a tool for the development of side impact
protection. Traffic accident data from car-to-car accidents have
been used as reference to full-scale tests. Certain test parameters
have been varied to find out if an improved correlation is possible
between real-world accidents and laboratory collision. To further
understand the interaction between the occupant and the car
structure, sled testing has been used as a complement.
The conclusion of the study is that a suitable side impact test
method is a moving deformable barrier (MDB) impacting in a 90°
noncrabbed configuration. A good resemblance to real-life accidents
is achieved with a CCMC MDB76, mass 1,400 kg, ground clearance 250
mm, and impact speed 35 mph.
Future work at Volvo will include further accident
investigations, improvement of measurement techniques, development
of subsystem testing, and evaluation of different MDB front faces
in terms of force-crush characteristics.