Determination of Collision Configurations from Vehicle Deformation Patterns 910127

The severity of vehicle crush and occupant injury is explained in terms of the changes in kinetic energy or change in velocity during impact. The work is calculated by mathematical models such as CRASH 3 program on the basis of vehicle damage information collected from the accident scene. In application of CRASH 3, the impact orientation and the direction of the principal force, etc. must be inferred by user, based on measurement and experience. Therefore it is one of the most important tasks to estimate the collision configuration from physical evidence. The individual experience methods in this regard may lead to big misunderstandings and mistaken conclusions in the reconstruction; however, very little has been studied the determination of the collision configuration in the reconstruction.

In general, the vehicle collision occurs in three steps: the vehicle contacts to the other vehicle, the maximum deformation of the vehicles occurs, and then the second collision happens depending on collision configuration.

This paper provides an experimental discussion for determination of collision configurations from vehicle crush dynamics and the resulting deformation patterns. A series of oblique full-scale collision experiments were carried out, and a quantitative description of vehicle deformation was developed using stereo type camera system. A practical application also will be presented in this paper.