A cost effective far side crash simulation

According to real-life crash data, one of the most harmful events among all side impacts is when the driverhead hits the far-side door when the car is hit from the far side. There is currently no established test method to simulate a crash where such an event is at risk of occurring. In order to assess real life injuries and develop countermeasures for far side crashes, standardized cost-effective test methods are needed. This paper presents a bending bar sled-test set-up simulating a full-scale 3 o’clock far side crash. In the full scale crash-test a deformable barrier with a speed of 65 km/h struck the passenger side of a passenger car with a BioSID in the driver seat. The intrusion of the vehicle was over when the dummy hit the far side door and therefore there was no requirement to simulate intrusion rate and extent in the sled test. The remaining part of the deformed vehicle was chopped in front of the instrument panel and behind the front seats and was then fastened transversely onto a sled. The intruded passenger side was fixed and reinforced. The mid-console, the passenger door-trim and the belt system were replaced. A BioSID was placed in the driver seat according to the full scale crash and the sled impacted the chosen set of iron bars with a resulting Δv of 24 km/h. As a result, the kinematics, accelerations and loading of the dummy were essentially the same as in the corresponding full scale crash. In conclusion, a sled test set-up can be used to assess real life injuries and in the development of dummies and countermeasures for far side crashes of similar types as considered in the paper.