The objective of this study is to evaluate two applications of a multi-accelerometric method, already developed for dummies, to car safety tests. In the first case, the contribution of the angular acceleration to the analysis of two types of head impacts is evaluated. The study shows that it is possible to refine the head impact analysis. The second application consists of the calculation of steering column rearward displacement in a frontal crash test. This application shows that it is possible to approximate the kinematics of the steering wheel without having to analyze a film. The displacements obtained from the accelerometric approach are compared with those provided by the convential film analysis. This comparison shows acceptable convergence during the whole dynamic motion of the steering wheel column. The paper briefly describes how the steering wheel column rearward displacement analysis can be optimized.
Abstract