The response and risk of injury for occupants in frontal crashes are more severe when structural deformation occurs in the vehicle interior. The aim of this paper is to reproduce this impact environment in the laboratory. A sled system capable of producing structural intrusion in the footwell region was developed. The system couples the hydraulic decelerator of the sled to actuator pistons attached to the toepan and floorpan structure of the buck. characterization of the footwell intrusion event is based on developing a toepan pulse analogous to the acceleration pulse used to characterize sled and vehicle decelerations. Preliminary sled tests with the system indicate that it is capable of simulating a complex sequence of toepan/floorpan translations and rotations. (A)
Abstract