James Saunders

Repeatability of a Small Overlap and an Oblique Moving Deformable Barrier Test Procedure

NHTSA has developed two different moving deformable barrier-to-vehicle test procedures to assess the vehicle and occupant response in narrow overlap motor vehicle crashes. An assessment of test repeatability is one of the requirements necessary to accept the test procedure as viable. Previous methodologies, coefficient of variation (CV) and similarity analysis were developed to assess the repeatability of vehicle and occupant response in motor vehicle crash tests for full frontal and 40% overlap tests procedures. These will be used for this assessment. Three repeat tests were performed in each test procedure, with all other factors held constant: vehicles of the same make, model, and model year; moving deformable barriers of the same mass, velocity, and barrier face properties; and the same occupant - a THOR 50th percentile adult male in the drivers seat. In general, for this one vehicle make and model the repeatability of both vehicle and occupant response metrics were good for both test modes. In isolated cases, differences in occupant response resulted from the timing of side curtain air bag deployment. Language: en

NHTSA's Frontal Offset Research Program

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is conducting research programs to develop test procedures to reduce death and injury, in particular debilitating lower extremity injuries in frontal offset collisions. This paper presents updated results of Offset Deformable Barrier (ODB) crash tests conducted for the NHTSA. The ODB crash tests were conducted with 50th percentile male and 5th percentile female Hybrid III dummies fitted with advanced lower legs, Thor-Lx/HIIIr and Thor-FLx/HIIIr, to assess the potential for debilitating and costly lower limb injuries. This paper also investigates the implications that the ODB test procedure may have on fleet compatibility by evaluating the results from vehicle-to-vehicle crash tests.