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The car-pedestrian impact is formulated as a design task for the engineer designing a car front. Pedestrian load tolerances are defined in an appropriate form for design. A two dimensional mathematical model with assumed deformable car surface is used to determine the movement of the pedestrian during the collision, the locations and velocities of impact. The dynamic load bearing capacity of materials and car body components is determined using an impact pendulum. With the described design procedure an experimental front was defined, built and tested in full scale crash tests. Results are presented. Emphasis is laid on simplicity of design methods as well in analysis as in experimental testing.

Low-mass vehicles (LMV) are characterized by a total mass of 500 - 600 kg and an overall length of 2.5 m - 3.0 m. In order to provide sufficient transportation capacity, they should be relatively wide (1.7 m) and high (1.6 m). Occupant safety associated with such vehicles poses unique problems. According to published accident and injury statistics, a negative correlation exists between vehicle mass and injury severity in car-to-car crashes. In part, this finding can be attributed to the fact that small vehicles today are designed according to conventional design strategies involving however only a small frontal deformation zone and minimal side protection. For a LMV which is even smaller and lighter than present “small” cars another solution has to be found. A number of frontal and side impacts staged by our group with the aid of a LMV test device along with a mathematical model analysis indicate that a Rigid-Belt Body (RBB) represents a concept which is well suited for LMVs.