The CRASH3 computer program, a well known and useful tool in accident reconstruction, is shown to be innaccurate by comparison with car-to-car crash test data. Claims for accuracy of about 10 percent cannot be validated. Both the impact model and the damage only model yield results which are in error. Cases involving error well in excess of 20 percent are demonstrated. These inaccuracies are due primarily to the omission of terms in the formulation of the energy equation and to the sensitivity of the solution to the input estimate of principle-direction-of-force.
Author(s):
Ronald L. Woolley, Charles Y. Warner, Melaney D. Tagg
Affiliated:
Collision Safety Engineering
Pages: 20
Event:
SAE International Congress and Exposition
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Also in:
Reconstruction of Motor Vehicle Accidents-A Technical Compendium-PT-34, Field Accidents-Data Collection, Analysis, Methodologies, and Crash Injury Reconstructions-P-159, SAE 1985 Transactions-V94-85
Related Topics:
Accident reconstruction
Impact tests
Tools and equipment
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