Almost two-thirds of German car passengers killed in collisions with trucks were the victims of frontal crashes. This paper reports the safety research conducted by the Institute of Vehicle Technology at the Technical University of Berlin, to lessen the danger posed by the front end of a truck. Energy-absorbing deformation elements for the front ends of trucks were developed in component tests, with the elements being matched to the characteristics of the deformation zones of cars. Development and optimization took place initially, and the resultant designs were tested for actual safety gains achieved, by means of crash tests with real vehicles. Nine vehicle-vehicle crash tests were conducted, with various versions of front-end protection systems, with cars equipped and not equipped with additional safety features, and at various impact speeds. For the covering abstract of the conference, see IRRD 837684.
Samenvatting