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In today's traffic accidents vehicle side impacts are second to frontal impacts as far as accident frequency is concerned, while being in the lead with regard for the risk to be injured severely. Various experiments and analytical investigations have already been performed on this subject. The merely experimental approach with its time-consuming and costly iterations can be efficiently assisted by corresponding simulation programs which are readily accepted if the simulated results are easily applicable in vehicle component design. When analysing both the mathematical and experimental side structure optimizations it is found that there is a considerable potential for improvement on the one hand but that it is difficult to transfer the calculated results into body design on the other. This paper presents a method allowing to apply the results of various side impact simulations to the layout of vehicle side structures.

Results from 15 side impact tests with EUROSID are reported and compared with results from 58 postmortem human subjects (PMHS). In this test series a CCMC moving deformable barrier impacted an Opel Kadett body in white under a 90° impact angle. Impact speeds were 40 km/h, 45 km/h, 50 km/h. The main goal of this research project was to find out to what extent the EUROSID is able to predict injuries which were obtained under identical test conditions using PMHS. Statistical methods described in former publications were used to calculate prediction relations derived from measured data. The body regions to be concentrated on according to PMHS tests were thorax, abdomen, and trunk of the EUROSID. Measurements taken on the dummy indicated major problems regarding interpretation of results: in some tests rib deflection was higher with 40 km/h than with 50 km/h. The abdominal switches frequently indicated high forces at 40 km/h impact speed whereas they did only once at 50 km/h.

The Porsche airbag module is an extension of the Madymo 2d simulation program version 4.0. It generates contact forces between the airbag and the contact cylinders and/or contact planes of the dummy or the vehicle interior respectively. The passive restraint system is calculated by means of a three-dimensional model. The simulated airbag shape is a realistic approximation of the actual airbag and can be arbitrarily defined within a large range. The results were validated by numerous crash-, sled-, component- and inflation tests using different vehicles and airbag systems. Good correlation between the results of the simulations and of comparable vehicle tests has been confirmed by many examples for both the driver and the front passenger dummies. The Porsche airbag simulation program is sensitive to variations of input parameters. The program and the data sets are easy to handle.

Within the framework of the VOI Project (VOI = Economically justified passenger protection, a research project supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Technology) and based on a comparative analysis of cars in various weight classes, vehicles were selected whose responses to safety relevant measures were representative for the vehicle population in the Federal Republic of Germany. The force/deformation characteristics required to validate the crash simulation model used for optimisation calculations have also been determined. Finally the effects of modified vehicle crush structure force/deformation characteristics on sticker price, operation and maintenance cost, and post-accident total expenses have been quantified.