Citation

Nilsson-Ehle A. Int. J. Veh. Des. 1982; 4(2): 126-113.

Affiliation

Volvo Automotive Safety Center, Goteborg, Sweden

Copyright

(Copyright © 1982, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

To improve the crashworthiness of cars it is necessary to have accurate information concerning the severity of road accidents, and the deceleration forces experienced by vehicles and their occupants. The Collision Deformation Classification (CDC) system can only be used to compare the damage suffered by cars of the same model involved in the same type of accident. As long as only one car model is analyzed, the Vehicle Damage Index (VDI) may be used as a parameter for grading accidents by severity. The process has to be carried out with great care; only cars that have experienced not only the same general accident type, e. g. frontal collision, but also the same distribution of damage and the same collision object may be compared. Velocity change ( DELTA V) has been widely adopted as a preferred form of severity indication parameter in recent years, and this paper outlines a variation of the K. L. Campbell method of calculating DELTA V for frontal collisions that is used by Volvo in their accident analysis. There is a need for greater standardization in the calculation of DELTA V and for more vehicle data to be exchanged between car manufacturers.