Nihon Kikai Gakkai ronbunshu (May 2015)
Deformation of vehicle body in pole side impact and its experimental modeling by means of rectangular steel tube
Abstract
Pole side impact is one of the most common types of vehicle collisions. The pole side impact at high vehicle speed induces not only local collapse but also bending of the vehicle body. However, the estimation method of the vehicle speed with consideration of the bending has not been established yet. In the present study, the deformation of the vehicle body at the pole side impact experiment with impact speed of 80 km/h was investigated. The results revealed that the collapse deformation first occurred and then the bending deformation followed. In order to understand the deformation of the vehicle at high-speed pole side impact, lateral local compression test and three-point bending test of rectangular steel tubes were performed. It was found that the deformation of the tube was similar to that of the vehicle at the pole side impact experiment, when the specimen was subjected to the sequential test of lateral local compression and three-point bending. The change in the energy absorbed by the deformation of tube in the sequential test was also found to be similar to that in the vehicle experiment. These similarities are useful to investigate the vehicle collision speed at high-speed pole side impact based on the deformation and the absorbed energy of rectangular metal tubes.
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