IMPROVING THE ACCURACY OF STIFFNESS COEFFICIENT CALCULATION WHEN ESTIMATING THE KINETIC ENERGY SPENT ON VEHICLE DEFORMATION

Abstract

Introduction: The paper addresses a method to estimate the kinetic energy spent on deformations and the vehicle speed equivalent to such value during the reconstruction of road accidents. Purpose of the study: The study is aimed at improving coefficients used in the method and affecting the vehicle speed at the instant of a collision. Methods: The damage analysis algorithm measures the vehicle deformation to estimate the energy required to produce the measured vehicle damage, with regard to the principle of momentum conservation. Results: The stiffness coefficients used were developed long before the appearance of modern vehicles. Therefore, the authors propose to substitute the stiffness coefficients used for those considering modern trends in the automobile industry and ensuring much simpler and more direct calculation. It saves us the trouble to reduce experimental results to the formulation of force deflection and makes it possible to simulate damage behavior directly. The authors also describe the scope of application for the proposed coefficients, and restrictions of their use.

Keywords

• vehicle speed
• road accident
• road accident reconstruction
• kinetic energy
• vehicle stiffness
• vehicle stiffness coefficients.