Volvo Side Impact Testing 856084

The improvement of side impact protection is today a major concern to the crashworthiness community. A prerequisite for making this development possible is the establishment of a common side impact test method, representative of several traffic environments.

Volvo has made a study aimed at determining the suitability of a moving barrier test as a tool for the development of side impact protection. Traffic accident data from car-to-car accidents have been used as reference to full-scale tests. Certain test parameters have been varied to find out if an improved correlation is possible between real-world accidents and laboratory collision. To further understand the interaction between the occupant and the car structure, sled testing has been used as a complement.

The conclusion of the study is that a suitable side impact test method is a moving deformable barrier (MDB) impacting in a 90° noncrabbed configuration. A good resemblance to real-life accidents is achieved with a CCMC MDB76, mass 1,400 kg, ground clearance 250 mm, and impact speed 35 mph.

Future work at Volvo will include further accident investigations, improvement of measurement techniques, development of subsystem testing, and evaluation of different MDB front faces in terms of force-crush characteristics.