Table Of ContentCrashworthiness of Transportation Systems:
Structural Im pact and Occupant Protection
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Series E: Applied Sciences -Vol. 332
Crashworthiness of
Transportation Systems:
Structural Impact and
Occupant Protection
edited by
c.
Jorge A. Ambrasio
o.
Manuel F. Seabra Pereira
and
Fernando Pina da Silva
Instituto de Engenharia MecAnica,
Instituto Superior Tecnico,
Lisboa, Portugal
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on
Crashworthiness of Transportation Systems: Structural Impact and Occupant
Protection
Tr6ia, Portugal
July 7-19,1996
A C.i.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-94-010-6447-7 ISBN 978-94-011-5796-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-5796-4
Printed on acid-free paper
AII Rights Reserved
© 1997Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1997
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ ing photo
copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the copyright owner.
NATO-ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE
Crashworthiness of Transportation Systems:
Structural Impact and Occupant Protection
TROIA, PORTUGAL
JULY 7 -19,1996
MAIN SPONSOR:
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
SPONSORS
Associa~ao do Comercio Autom6vel de Portugal
European Research Office of the US Army
Ford Motor Company
Funda~ao Luso Americana para 0 Desenvolvimento
Industria de Componentes Mecamcos
Instituto de Engenharia Mecamca p610 1ST
Junta Nacional de Investiga~ao Cientifica e Tecno16gica
National Science Foundation
Na tionallnstitute for Aviation Research
Preven~ao Rodoviaria Portuguesa
Office of Naval Research European Office
Ordem dos Engenheiros da Regiao Sui
Renault Portuguesa
Sociedade Gnifica da Paia
TAP Air Portugal
DIRECTOR
Jorge A. C. Ambr6sio, IDMEC-Instituto Superior Tecnico, Portugal
CO-DIRECTOR
Wlodek Abramowicz, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE:
Norman Jones, University ofLiverpoo~ United Kingdom
David Viano, General Motors, USA
Jac Wismans, T.N.O., The Netherlands
CONTENTS
Preface ix
List of Participants xi
PART I -Impact Biomechanics
Occupant Kinematics and Impact Biomechanics
A. I. King 3
Injury Mechanisms and Biofidelity of Dummies
D. C. Viano, A. I. King 25
Biomechanics oflmpact Traumatic Brain Injury
F. A. Bandak 53
Forensic Analysis and Data for Road Users
I. R. Hill 95
PART n -Road Data, Compatibility Issues and Testing 113
A Review ofthe Biomechanics oflmpacts in Road Accidents
M.Mackay 115
Compatibility Issues and Vulnerable Users
C. H. E. Tarriere 139
Advanced Restraint Systems for Occupant Protection
D. Cesari 173
Car Crash and Safety Testing
P. Ardoino 189
PART ill - Occupant Simulation Models 207
Occupant Simulation Models: Experiment and Practice
P. Prasad 209
Models in Injury Biomechanics for Improved Passive Vehicle Safety
J. Wismans 221
Biomechanical Models in Vehicle Accident Simulation
E. Haug 237
viii
PART IV -Structural Impact 261
Dynamic Inelastic Structural Response
N. Jones 263
The Macro Element Approach in Crash Calculations
w. Abramowicz 291
Crashworthiness of Bus Structures and Rollover Protection
M. Mato1csy 321
PART V -Finite Element Modelling in Crashworthiness 361
Vehicle Crashw orthiness and Occupant Protection in Frontal Impact
by F.E. Analysis -An Integrated Approach
T. B. Khalil, M. Y. Sheh 363
Recent Trends and Advances in Crash Simulation and Design of Vehicles
E. Haug, J. Clinckemaillie, x. N~ A. K. Pickett, T. Queckbomer 401
PART VI -Multibody Dynamics Approaches 419
Rigid Flexible Multibody Equations of Motion Suitable for
Vehicle Dynamics and Crash Analysis
P. Nikravesh 421
Contact!Impact Dynamics Applied to Crash Analysis
H. M. Lankarani 445
Multibody Dynamic Tools for Crashw orthiness and Impact
J. A. C. Ambr6sio, M. F. O. S. Pereira 475
PART VII -Aircraft Crash Protection 523
Aircraft and Helicopter Crashworthiness: Design and Simulation
C. M. Kindervater 525
Current Issues Regarding Aircraft Crash Injury Protection
H. M. Lankarani 579
PART VIII-Conclusions and Future Trends 613
Crashw orthiness of Transportation Systems: Conclusions and Future Trends
J. A. C. Ambr6sio, N. Jones, W. Abramowicz, A. I. King 615
INDEX 625
PREFACE
During the last few years, major scientific progress has been achieved in fields related to the area of
crashw orthiness and injury biomechanics. In view of this progress and given the fast rate of technical
developments in vehicle crash protection, a need to access the current state-of-art and results from
different groups and schools of thought was felt with the ol:!jective of focusing trends in future research
and contributing to new legislative developments in safety terms.
With these pmposes, the Advanced Study Institute on Crashworthiness of Transportation
Systems: Stroctural Impact and Occupant Protection took place in Tr6ia, Portugal, during the period
July 7-19, 1996. Eighty five participants, from fifteen countries, representing academia, industry,
government and research institutions attended this ASI, organized by the Instituto de Engenharia
Mec3nica, Instituto Superior Tecnico. In addition to the lectures which were delivered by prominent
researchers, the full program of the Institute also included contributed presentations by participants.
These papers have been reviewed and a selection is being published in the Intemational Journal of
Impact Engineering and in the International Journal of Crashworthiness. Interchange of experiences
between leading scientists, young scholars and specialists was greatly encouraged and discussions were
promoted in order to generate new ideas and define directions for future research and developments.
Crashworthiness insures vehicle structural integrity and its ability to absorb crash energy with
minimal diminution of survivable space. Restraint systems limit occupant motion mitigating injuries
that may result from contact with vehicle interior during sudden acceleration conditions. Both structural
crashworthiness and occupant protection technologies are multi-disciplinary and highly specialized,
including complex technical fields spanning from the areas of mechanics to biological sciences. This
book brings together, in a tutorial and review manner, a comprehensive summary of current work and is
therefore suitable for a wide scope of interests, ranging from advanced students to researchers and
developers concerned with advanced theoretical and design issues in crashworthiness of transportation
systems. The applications will help manufacturers and design engineers to apprise the different
approaches available today and their use and suitability as efficient design tools. This book is organized
into eight parts, the first seven addressing the state-of-art techniques and methods in the principal areas
of study of the Institute and the final part with the a review of the state-of-art and a summary of the
directions for future research and developments proposed in the panel session at the end of the Institute.
The biomechanics of injuries has been extensively addressed in recent years by the engineering
and medical communities. The tolerance of various components of humans has been investigated
extensively and is now represented by a variety of parameters which exhibit different levels for specified
degrees of injuries. Major efforts are still required in order to have results that can be directly applied in
the design of vehicles, so as to mitigate trauma during secondary collisions. In Part I, the aspects related
with the occupant kinematics and injury biomechanics are presented. The mechanisms for injury of the
head, neck and spine, in particular, are analyzed in terms of the mechanical response of the tissues
involved. Life threatening injuries or serious disabilities and their relation with the excessive brain
loading during crash are presented and discussed here. Finally, the pathophysiological responses to
trauma are considered against the forensic evidence of possible injury causation.
Occupant safety in transportation systems, and ultimately, the potential survival in the event of
a vehicle crash is determined by two factors: structural crashworthiness and restraint systems in the
passenger compartments. In Part II of this book the reader will find a review of the biomechanics of
impact in road accidents and their relation with factors such as structural integrity, compatibility and
retrain systems for different types of impacts. A variety of technological solutions for passive and active
restrain systems with specific energy absorbing characteristics and different motion limiting
mechanisms adaptable to the passenger and to the crash conditions are included. Compatibility issues
raising from the heterogeneous nature of the masses and structures of vehicles involved in car-to-car or
car -to-truck collisions or contact with vulnerable road users are also discussed in this part of the book.
Special attention is paid not only to the existing research and testing procedures currently used but also
to the design and test methodologies used by car manufacturers.
A wide variety of crash tests, including a large family of dummy tests, are being used by
different safety programs. Some seem to be more relevant to real world accident scenarios than others.
ix
x
Part III includes information concerned with the development and use of crash test dmnmies and their
numerical modeling. The models of dmnmies based on multibody fonnu1ations and on finite element
descriptions are presented and the issue of more realistic hmnan body models, rather than dummy
models, is brought up. The important issue of biofidelity of dmnmies and numerical models is
thoroughly discussed and directions for future use of a biofidelity classification are also given.
The evaluation of highly complex nonlinear response of vehicle structures, which boils down to
the assessment of the energy absorbing mechanisms of structural components has been a dominant
feature in structural crashw orthiness. In Part N, the dynamic inelastic response of structures and
structural components is described in view of the strain material properties under impact loading. The
accurate and efficient analysis tools with increasing complexity, ranging from simplified 1D and 2D
models embedding analytical solutions or experimental results, to sophisticated finite element
procedures are introduced to model complex structural systems. The design of buses for crashworthiness
and rollover protection exemplifies the application of these principles.
In Part V, recent trends and advances of the finite element analysis in crash simu1ation of motor
vehicle and occupant are presented. The modeling and the use of different material models for vehicle
structural components, restrain systems, air bags, crash barriers and dmnmies are addressed in the
framework of the finite element methodology. The feasibility of the integrated simu1ation of full scale
vehicle models, restrain systems and occupants is then demonstrated and discussed.
Many of the most popular analysis and design procedures used in crashworthiness of vehicles
and occupants are based in multibody methodologies. In Part VI, the fimdamenta1s of multibody
dynamic methodology are reviewed regarding its applicability to crashworthiness and impact analysis.
The important aspect of modeling and validating the contact -impact forces, including material and
geometrical properties of the surfaces in contact, are addressed here. Finally, different fonnu1ations,
with increasing complexity, suitable for the simu1ation of vehicle and occupant impact, are presented.
The emerging use of optimization procedures in the crashworthiness design is considered in the
framework of multibody dynamics.
In addition to the general assessment of the different aspects in crashworthiness, major
applications of developments to date in aeronautics are presented and analyzed in Part VII of this book.
A balanced presentation of the different issues in the design and simu1ation of aircraft and helicopter
crashworthiness, together with its applicational aspects will help the reader to apprise the different
design goals and methodologies and the efforts that are in progress to improve the present status of the
art. Issues related with crash protection of aircraft occupants, firilure of materials used in the aeronautics
industry and adequacy of the simu1ation methods to specific problems of this area are addressed here.
The editors are indebted to the Co-Director of the Institute, Prof. Wlodek Abramowicz, and to
the members of the Organizing Committee, Prof. Noonan Jones, Dr. David Viano and Dr. Jac Wismans
for their valuable suggestions and advise in the organization of the ASI. We extend our recognition to
all lecturers and participants in the Institute for their active participation in the discussions and
contributing presentations. Through Mr. Joio Sousa we would like to acknowledge the professional
work of the Torralta staff for the excellent ambiance provided during the Institute. Our appreciation is
also due for the collaboration and efforts of Ms. Andrea Freitas and Mr. Amindio Rebelo, from the
IDMEC staff, that contributed to the smooth rmming of the ASI. The preparation and rmming of the
Institute and the efficient editing work of this book is greatly due to the competence of Mrs. Sandra
Castelo whose dedication is highly appreciated. Finally, without the support of the NATO Science
Committee the Institute would not have been possible. Their support is gratefully acknowledged.
Lisbon, October 1996
Jorge Ambr6sio
Manuel Pereira
Fernando Pina da Silva
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Lecturers:
Wlodek Abramowicz
Impact Design Inc., ul. 1 Maja 18, Michalowice 05-816, Poland
Jorge Ambrosio
Instituto de Engenharia Mecanica, I.S.T., Av. Roviseo Pais 1, 1096 Lisboa Codex, Portugal
Pierluigi Ardoino
FIAT -Auto, Product Engineering Safety Center, Via G. Gozzano 2, 10043 Orbassano (TO), Italy
Faris Bandak
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 400 Seventh St, SW Washington, D.C. 20590, U.S.A.
Dominique Cesari
INRETS 109 Avenue Salvador Allende 69675 Bron Cedex, France
Eberhard Haug
RID -Engineering System. Intemational, SA 20 Rue Saarinen, Silic 270 94578 Rnngis, France
Ian Hill
Guy's Hospital, Department ofForensic Medicine University of London, London Bridge, SEI 9RT, U.K.
Norman Jones
The University of Liverpool, Department of Mechanical Engineering Liverpool, L69 3BX , U.K.
Tom Khalil
Safety Center, General Motors Research and Development Center, 30200 Mound Road, I-II Warren,
Michigan 48090-90 I 0, U.S.A.
Chris Kindervater
Deutsche ForshlDlgsanstalt fUr Luft Raumfahrt, Pfaffenwaldring 3840, D-7000 Stuttgart 80, Gennany
Albert King
Wayne State University, Bioengineering Center 818 W. Hancock, Detroit, MI 48202, U.S.A.
Hamid Lankarani
Wichita State University, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wichita, KS 67260-0035, U.S.A.
Murray Mackay
University of Birmingham, Accident Research Unit Edgbaston Birmingham BI5 2IT, U.K.
Matyas Matolscy
Ikams Vehicle Manufacturing, Margitu. 114 1165 Budapest, Hungary
xi
