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Safety belts play a very important role in restraining the occupants in a collision, thereby reducing occupant injuries/ fatalities. Strength of the safety belt anchorages are being evaluated by the passenger car manufacturers as per ECE R14/FMVSS 210. Since 2002, evaluations of safety belt anchorages have become mandatory in India. With increasing pressure to cut the design cycle time, manufacturers are focused on Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) for faster design and validation. The results of a CAE simulation largely depends on the user input and model accuracy. Hence a need arises for establishing a credible correlation between the laboratory test results and the CAE simulation results. This paper discusses such a correlation exercise carried out for safety belt anchorage testing through anchorage deformation mapping (ADM) and floor deformation mapping (FDM).

Side impact collisions are one of the most frequently occurring road accidents leading to occupant injury and even death. To provide better safety to occupants during such collisions, side doors and side body structures in modern passenger cars have been designed to absorb the impact energy and reduce the depth of intrusion into the passenger compartment. Side impact performance components are often evaluated by conducting a dynamic full vehicle crash test and a quasi-static side door intrusion test. The Indian regulation for side impact performance evaluation comprises of the quasi-static side door intrusion test. This paper highlights the variation in crush strength performance viz., initial crush resistance, intermediate crush resistance and peak crush resistance, due to the difference in the rate of load application as per IS12009:1995.

Energy dissipation testing of vehicle's interior fitments is done at various defined locations as per the regulation ECE R21. Interior fitting impact tests became mandatory in April 2006 for models manufactured from April 2006 and April 2007 for models being manufactured before April 2006 in India. With the implementation of stringent safety regulations in India, it is mandatory that every manufacturer tests and certifies their product to comply with the automotive safety standards. Automotive industry has a challenging task of designing and evaluating the components that play a vital role in the event of an unfortunate accident. In this context, a number of tests on safety belt anchorages, seat anchorages and interior fittings such as instrument panel, steering wheel etc., are conducted.

Seats, seat belts, seat belt anchorages, etc., are safety critical items for the passenger in case of sudden acceleration/deceleration and accidents. Seat belts have become mandatory fitments on front seats of M and N categories of vehicles from April 1994 in India[1]. Seat belt without a proper anchorage does not serve any purpose. Hence, seat belt anchorage testing became mandatory in India in year 2002. In real accident situation seat belts come in to action within few ms and complete phenomenon is finished in 150 ms. However the regulatory requirements prescribed in AIS: 015, ECE R14 and 76/115/EEC specify the application of loading to be achieved as rapidly [2].A number of seat belt anchorage tests were conducted on BIW and laboratory model setups. This paper highlights the effect of loading rate, and loading method on the load bearing capacity of the seat belt anchorages, floor area and seat structures.

The field of Passive Safety is of primary focus for the automobile manufacturers. Number of changes has been incorporated in today’s passenger car, which not only protects its occupants but also other road users. This revolutionary change in technology calls for new development in evaluation procedures. Crash testing of vehicles is one such massive field of research. The nature and cost of these tests increases the need for better measurement techniques. High speed cameras are often used in the crash tests and image processing is done to study the deformation characteristics, dummy kinematics and steering wheel displacements. This paper discusses the effect of key factors like Camera positioning and 2D Calibration on the analysis of high speed images. The paper also discusses the experimental evaluation carried out to validate the same.