Citation

Digges KH, Stephenson RR. Proc. Int. Tech. Conf. Enhanced Safety Vehicles 2009; 2009.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, In public domain, Publisher National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The findings provide a technology base for fireworthiness including the following: fire statistics on crash modes; the behavior of plastic gasoline tanks when subjected to fire and impact tests; finite element analysis of fuel tanks subjected to crash conditions; assessments of automotive fuel components that relate to fire safety; underhood temperatures under driving conditions; flammability of underhood liners; ignition and flammability properties of plastics and underhood fluids; an analysis and synthesis of 22 vehicle burns; fire suppression needs and a laboratory design and test; and examination of fire safety aspects of future vehicle technologies such as 42-volt electrical systems and hydrogen fuelled vehicles. These research results in conjunction with the GM/DoT Fire Research Project have been analyzed and recommendations for fire safety improvements have been proposed. The recommendations include vehicle level fire tests to increases survivability time for crashed vehicles subjected to exterior fires, particularly those that originate under the hood. The full text of this paper may be found at: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv21/09-0211.pdf