HOW TO EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF A TRUCK IN THE CAR TO TRUCK FRONTAL CRASH

In the future a second step in the protection of car occupants in car to truck frontal crashes will include some form of energy absorption by the frontal structure of the truck. The results of recent studies into this type of crash permits to determine the most likely causes from the diversity of real life conditions, from which one or two typical situations can be brought out. More difficult is a sufficiently accurate evaluation of the situations surrounding the two vehicles involved, which is necessary when deciding upon a test speed representative of the majority of real crashes. At least, the choice in the method of testing, which should reproduce the situations of the car, its occupants and also the truck is questionable: how to obtain a method, sufficiently simple, which is representative of the complexity of the crash, will remain valid for several years and does not limit the choice in the improvement of the structures of trucks? (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 894848.