Different methods and theories were developed to describe the accident severity. For accident reconstruction the EES (Energy Equivalent Speed) method is an important tool. The plastic deformation energy of the damaged car is expressed as a kinetic energy of the car with the virtual velocity value EES. For an authentic EES-estimation various crash-tests with different conditions are necessary, because the energy absorption depends on various parameters. Documented car deformations for EES values up to approximately 60 km/h are available from crash tests. For higher impact velocities only very little data is published. To gain a better understanding of the crush behavior at higher impact speeds, a series of full scale rigid barrier impacts were performed at impact speeds in the range of 10 to 100 km/h.
Abstract