Citation

Beermann HJ. Int. J. Veh. Des. 1984; 5(1-2): 86-103.

Affiliation

Technical Univ of Braunschweig, Inst fuer Fahrzeugtechnik, Braunschweig, West Ger

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Much experience has been gathered on the impact behavior of passenger cars crashing against flat barriers. This is quite different from impacting underride guards at the rear end of commercial vehicles. The side members in the car's front structure are the main energy absorbing structural elements, thus it is of considerable significance whether they hit on the underrider beam. Thirty-four crash tests were carried out in order to measure impact forces and deformations. The quasistatic crush forces of simplified side members can be calculated by approximation on the basis of many experimental results. A ratio of crash to crush forces was found from dynamic impact and static crush tests. The frontal impact of a passenger car on a flat barrier was simulated by crashing a simplified structural model consisting of an engine, gearbox, and front-axle etc. The required strength of an underride prevention device can be found from the deformation resistance of the ramming car's front structure. The weight of the commercial vehicle carrying the underride guard has little influence on the impact force and deformation because as the kinetic energy to be absorbed does not decrease in proportion as the commercial vehicle's weight is reduced, and, because of its inertia, the vehicle hardly moves until the peak crashing load is reached. Quasistatic strength requirements are presented as an aid in the design of underride guards.