Crash tests have been conducted on a baseline vehicle in accordance with the proposed European side-impact regulation. With MADYMO, a model of the vehicle including the EUROSID-1 dummy and the barrier was developed and validated against the test results. The model was used to evaluate the effect of vehicle modifications on injury assessed by the dummy. Based on the results of the simulations and analysis of the tests, simple modifications were introduced in the vehicle and a test was carried out on the modified vehicle. The baseline vehicle met the regulation on head and lower body criteria, but failed on all chest criteria. The modified vehicle satisfied the regulation on all criteria, except for the lower rib Soft Tissue Criterion. It is shown that vehicle improvement does not necessarily produce stiffening or strengthening of the structure. Improvement was achieved by tuning the side-structure deformation so that it takes place over a wider area. (A)
Samenvatting