Accident Reconstruction

Goals of Accident Reconstruction

What happened? Data Collection
Characterise/document crashes for data processing Investigation of product/environment needs

Accident Reconstruction
Data Collection / Accident Investigation
Accident type, vehicles, injuries Gross motions of vehicles and occupants

Litigation
Assessing the cause of injury and collision cause

Reconstruction
Calculate severity Detailed simulation of system dynamics

Organisations
Road Designers
Highway Department Manufacturers, Safety Engineers doctors, ergonomics

Terminology
Crush : Quantity of Vehicle Damage Yaw - Vehicle Rotation or Combination of rotation/forward motion Delta () V: Change of velocity EBS, EES : Equivalent Barrier (Energy) Speed PDOF : Principal Direction of Force Overlap Underride/Override Point of Impact (POI) / Point of Rest (POR)

Vehicle Designers

Medical / Human Factors Researchers

Terminology
Direction

Haddons Matrix
Pre Crash Human Crash Post Crash

Crush Overlap Location

Vehicle Environment

Crash Parameters
Delta V:
is NOT the speed of impact described the speed change during a crash phase has been a historical measure of accident severity

Example of Vehicle Accelerations

Crash History Case 1
30
Acceleration [g]

20 15 V 10 5 0 0 0.1 0.2 Crash History Case 2 "Crash" "Braking" V 5 0 0.15 0.3 15 10

Velocity [m/s] Velocity [m/s]

20 10 0

Acceleration [g]

80 60 40 20 0 0

0.05 Time [s]

0.1

Delta V

Principal Direction of Force

PDOF represents the line of action for the force exerted on a vehicle during a collision

V1 V2 V1 V2 V PDOF

Why Delta V?
Historical - Unbelted Occupants
Correspondence to occupant impact with vehicle interior

Energy
EBS / BEV / EES / ETS
equivalent impact speed for a rigid barrier test Energy Absorbed in vehicle damage is expressed as an equivalent speed E= 1/2 MV2 V=EBS/BEV/EES/ETS

Practical
Can be easily calculated

Biomechanical - Response
acceleration * duration

Energy Equivalent Speed

When are Delta-V and EBS Different?

1) 2)

When the crush is not equally distributed over the 2 collision partners When the vehicle does not come to rest at the end of the crash phase

Scene Data

Complete Reconstruction
Requires information for all three phases Critical information
Point of Impact Point of Rest

Response time = Perception-Decision Time + Reaction Time 85th percentile of drivers = 1.6s + 1.5s = 3.1s distance for response time 100 km/h => 28 m/s => 87 m Braking and Steering: Driver Reactions
Pedal Action Brake activation

Pre-Crash

Braking
Passenger Cars
assume brakes are capable of locking all wheels f=mu*g if not locked wheel, brake efficiency factor also known as lockup factor Brakes may not be capable of locking wheels long hills may produce overheating out of adjustment brakes

Speed

Trucks

Response time

Braking Time

Vehicle Handling/Vehicle Dynamics

What did the vehicles do prior to collision? Begin with tire-road interface
traction circle
X Friction Force Long

Tire Behaviour
Force

longitudnal slip 20% lateral slip angle 15 deg. locked / sliding wheel

Slip

Y Friction Force Lat

longitudinal slip (v-r*w)/v

Tires velocity

Yaw
vehicle on threshold of spinning maximum cornering critical cornering speed upper bounds on vehicle speed

Critical Speed
Speed to produce onset of yaw Assume:
constant speed vehicle point mass constant friction

Vcrit = g m

Yaw Analysis
Average radius

Example

C 2m m + 8 2

m
chord

Brake Marks on Site

Example
Slide to stop distance
straight line, locked wheel braking 23 m road friction measured = 0.72 Speed at start of skid?

Wbrake = KE Fbrake d brake = 1 / 2m(vi2 v 2 ) f mgd brake = 1 / 2mvi2 vi = 2 gd brake

v = 18 m/s

ABS Brakes

Post-crash
similar to pre-crash BUT
tires disabled vehicle mass distribution changed

spinout
equivalent friction value

Spin Out
Co fG
Fro nt W hee ls

Spin Equivalence
,V
Linear Velocity, V Angular Velocity, Idealised Actual

Each wheel has: - different speed - different distance - different slip angle

Rea rW hee ls

Time

eff = f ( ,V , , K ) eff <

Equations of Motion
estimate effect for each wheel

Yaw mark from a test Yaw mark Skid mark

r r m&& = F x r r I = F r

r F

Crash Dynamics
Two Approaches
Momentum Energy

Application Restrictions
Momentum
Accurate scene evidence Vehicle Masses preimpact speed

Options
FEM Lumped Mass Models

Energy
Vehicle Stiffness data limited crash speed range (20-70 km/h)

Examples
A

Impact
mvi 2 2
E= kx 2 2

B
v1

mv f 2 2
vi'

V
time

Crush Model
Background
Determine severity of accident from vehicle damage discovered linear relationship between crush and vehicle impact speed for barrier tests
V c

Energy Approach
Formal model of energy dissipated in damaged vehicles
G=Area A2/(2B)

Force/width

B A

Residual Crush

Energy Approach
Formulate model of energy dissipated in damaged vehicles - linear force/deflection B=>N/m2 A=> N/m,
Force/width

Example
Renault
A= 45400 N/m B=296900 N/m/m G=3470 N/m

Rover
A= 67160 B= 870000 C=2592

Damage
C1=0.7 m C2=0.44 m L=1.6 m

Damage
C1=0.35 C2=0.2 L=1.67
C1
L

dF = Adx + Bdcdx
B A

dx

dF
Residual Crush

w dc
C2

Energy Calculation
E = Fd E = Ac( x) dx + Bc( x)dcdx E = A c( x)dx +
2 B c( x) dx + G dx 2

Accident Severity
Equivalent Barrier Speed (EBS) Equivalent Energy Speed (EES) Kinetic Energy change for vehicle is equal to energy absorbed
B

G=Area

Force/width

dF w dc

A /(2B)

Residual Crush

mv 2 = EB 2 2 EB v= m

v=> EBS, EES

Calculation of Energy
B (C1 + C 2) E=A L + (C12 + C 22 ) L + GL 2 2 E1 = 86200 E2 = 63300 EES = 2E M EES1 = 33 kmh

Energy Calculation
Crush Measurements
L2 L3 L4 L5 L6
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6

EES 2 = 28 kmh V2 = 2( E1 + E2 ) M2 ) M1

V1 =

M 1 (1 +

2( E1 + E2 ) M1 ) M2

M 2 (1 +

E = A dl + B dc dl
l lc
Damage width Damage Area

V1 = 47 kmh

V2 = 22 kmh

Crush Measurements

Numerical Solution
E = A( width ) + B( area ) + G G= 2A B2

Area is numerical integration of crush measurements

Crush Coefficients
Define Vehicle Stiffness, A & B for vehicles Defaults based on wheelbase Individidual vehicle values are better Values are becoming available for side and rear structures

Load Cell Walls

Load cell walls can provide force-deflection information

800

Load Sensors

Force [kN]

600 400 200

200

400 600 Displacement [mm]

800

1000

Error Sources
Measurements - accuracy of field measurements Stiffness Coefficients data specific to vehicles under investigation application of rigid barrier tests to carcar crashes angled impacts may not deform vehicle under similar conditions used to generate stiffness data

Error Sources
Vehicle damage only reflects static crush, elastic rebound not incorporated in formulation Vehicle damage only partly describes collision, pre & post crash data needed for complete damage

Validation of CRASH Algorithm to Crash Recorder Data (Default Stiffness Data)

Percent Error

Angle of Impacts

Vehicle Measurement
Damage types
Direct Induced

Actual Case Information

Problems in the field
No scene data Missing / unavailable vehicles Complex impact configurations Measurement of vehicles

Crush Measurement
Exterior Damage Profile

Crush Measurement Side

Undamaged Exemplar Profile

Crush Profile

Crush can not be measured directly

Side Impacts

Software Tools
CRASH 3 WinCrash (CRASH)
Damage and Momentum

Pole Impact

Car-Car

Damage Analysis Fundamentals

1 Estimate crush energy of both vehicles

2 Estimate weights Ma and Mb

3 Calculate Closing Speed

Optional
Estimate vehicle speeds from closing speed using additional info

Calculate vehicles Delta-V