Automotive safety and pollution control
Automotive safety
• Crumble zone
o Concept of Crumble Zone
o Crash pulse
o Crash pulse requirement
o Deformation behavior of vehicle body
Lecture 2
CONCEPT OF CRUMBLE ZONE
Crumple zones are designed to absorb the energy from the impact during a traffic collision by
controlled deformation.
The crumple zone of an automobile is a structural feature designed to compress during an accident
to absorb energy from the impact. Typically, crumple zones are located in the front part of the
vehicle, in order to absorb the impact of a head-on collision, though they may be found on other
parts of the vehicle as well.
Fig. 1 Crumple zones
From reference ‘Auto safety has come a long way in the last few decades, and one of the most
effective innovations is the crumple zone. Also known as a crush zone, crumple zones are areas of
a vehicle that are designed to deform and crumple in a collision. This absorbs some of the energy
of the impact, preventing it from being transmitted to the occupants.’
Dr. Anteneh Wogasso, Assistant Professor, School of Aerospace and Automotive Engineering 1
Automotive safety and pollution control
Safety Cage
A structural framework designed to prevent serious body shell deformation in the case of collision
or of a car turning over. So, what this means is a roll over protection structure (ROPS) is a
reinforcement member (s) installed into or onto a vehicle with intention of protecting the vehicles
occupants in the event of a rollover accident or collision. The primary intent of a roll cage is to
limit the crushing and deformation of the survival space which reduces the risk of a head,
neck/spinal, and upper torso injuries, ultimately preventing death.
Crash Pulse
Considering a full frontal collision into a rigid barrier, modern vehicles are designed so that the
front of the vehicle structure crumples, thereby absorbing the bulk of the vehicle’s kinetic energy,
as shown in Figure 2(a). The restraint system and occupants are contained within this
approximately non-deformable sub-system, which is used as the reference point to describe the
general vehicle motion during the collision event.
Fig. 2 (a) Approximate structural response during a full frontal collision. (b) Reference axis
Observing Figure 2(b), occupant response depends only upon the acceleration response of the
passenger compartment (i.e. the crash pulse, generally presented in the form of a deceleration
time plot), and the system of restraints in place to transfer this acceleration to the occupant.
Crash Pulse Requirements
The following crash pulse characteristics be preserved at every iteration of the optimisation:
1. The change in velocity across the crash pulse be equal to the initial impact speed.
2. The total crush displacement associated with each pulse be equal to a fixed length.
Dr. Anteneh Wogasso, Assistant Professor, School of Aerospace and Automotive Engineering 2
Automotive safety and pollution control
3. The acceleration be negative or zero for the duration of the impact.
4. The initial and final accelerations be zero.
Fig. 4 (a) General crash pulse model. (b) Crash pulse requirements
Theorem
Therefore, automobile frontal impact is described by a lumped-parameter model shown in
Fig. 1, where the occupant is represented by a point mass m , x(t) describes the
gross motion of the vehicle, and y(t) is the motion of the occupant relative to the vehicle.
The interaction between the occupant and the restraint systems such as seatbelt and airbag
is simply represented by a spring and a damper in the figure, but, in general, it can be
described by a control force u( y, ẏ , t).
For the vehicle motion,
a(t) = −˙x˙(t) , usually referred to as the vehicle crash pulse, and
Dv = maxt{x(t)}, defined as the vehicle crash deformation.
S0 = The free space between the occupant and the vehicle interior is called the
rattlespace, ( which is the maximum allowable forward excursion of the occupant
with respect to the vehicle, i.e., maxt{y(t)} S0.)
The equation of motion of the system is m(˙x˙+ ˙y˙) + u( y, y˙ , t) = 0 , with the initial conditions
x(0) = 0, x˙(0) = v0 , and y(0) = 0, y˙ (0) = 0 , where v0 is the impact velocity.
Fig. 3 A lumped-parameter model of the system
Dr. Anteneh Wogasso, Assistant Professor, School of Aerospace and Automotive Engineering 3
Automotive safety and pollution control
DEFORMATION BEHAVIOR OF VEHICLE BODY
Due to the frequency of frontal collisions, an important role is played by the legally stipulated
frontal impact test in which a vehicle is driven at a speed of 48.3 km/h (30 mph) into a rigid barrier
which is either perpendicular or inclined at an angle of up to 30° relative to the longitudinal axis
of the car.
Fig. 5 Distribution of various types of impacts in car accidents.
Fig. 6 Types of Crash Tests
Dr. Anteneh Wogasso, Assistant Professor, School of Aerospace and Automotive Engineering 4