Passenger compartment intrusion has shown to be the major cause of fatal and serious injuries suffered by restrained car occupants in frontal impacts. Current frontal test procedures, which use rigid barriers impacting the full car width, generate high vehicle decelerations and seat belt loads but very low intrusion levels. The need for an asymmetric test has been recognised for some time but more recently it has become clear that the use of rigid barriers is misleading car design. An offset impact test using a deformable barrier face has been developed which overcomes these problems and which has received widespread acceptance for its technical merit. However in Europe, some car manufacturers have managed to press manufacturers have managed to press legislators to agree to the adoption of an angled barrier test before adopting the offset deformable test. Lack of experience or validation of the proposed angled barrier test, problems with the Anti-Slide Devices (ASD) employed and questions over its effectiveness in improving car design have caused many to question this decision. This paper gives the background to the development of the offset deformable test procedure. The paper explains why an asymmetric deformable test is required. The paper discusses some of the technical problems identified with the 30 degree angled barrier test with ASD.
Abstract