Automotive, Simulation

& Impact Research

U N I V E R S I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y

Automotive Safety
Introduction
Past research activity has investigated the area of vehicle crash studies, using non-linear finite
element analysis to simulate the injury to vehicle occupants from side impacts. This work is on-
going.
However, forthcoming European legislation will require automotive manufacturers to provide
higher levels of protection to people outside the vehicle as well, and particularly pedestrians
involved in accidental frontal impacts.

Current Work

Pedestrian Safety**
In anticipation of the European legislation on
pedestrian safety, we are involved in two new studies.
In the first, the finite element analysis techniques
developed for passengers are being adapted to
simulate a pedestrian impact event to investigate the
influence of vehicle front end design on pedestrian
injuries.
The second pedestrian impact study involves the development and laboratory testing of physical
prototype systems. These involve adaptable car structures, involving for example the use of
bonnet deployment devices, to change the front end vehicle form on impact in a manner that
would afford the pedestrian more protection and enhance the chances of his survival.

Passenger & Driver Safety

Related work on passenger safety continues,
involving the use of adaptive car structures to
protect occupants in the event of a frontal crash.
The first of these projects involves an
investigation into the deployment of airbags for
out of position occupants (OOP) a situation that
results in fatalities as direct result of contact with
the airbag.
The second project involves the simulation of the
extended evolution of a vehicle rollover event.
This project will allow the coupling of our
established work using ADAMS to simulate full vehicle dynamics and MADYMO to simulate
occupants and deployable protection systems.

For more information - talk to Dr Mike Blundell - m.blundell@coventry.ac.uk

**This work is being undertaken in collaboration with MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association)
and Siemens Restraint Systems GmbH of Germany. The work on Passenger & Driver Safety
involves collaboration with Toyoda Gosei Europe and TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied
Scientific Research).