Increasing Passenger Safety with Crash Dummy Test Simulations

The development of automotive safety has come a long way, from the rudimentary use of crash test dummies to the advent of mandatory seat belt laws and now to the innovative application of finite element analysis (FEA) simulations for crash testing. These simulations stand as a testament to how technology can surpass the limitations of physical testing, offering insights into a wider array of crash scenarios that were once impossible to explore. This change showcases the technological advances and highlights the ongoing commitment to enhance vehicle and passenger safety. This blog post will provide insights on crash testing and how FEA simulations can add value to the vehicle development cycle.

Understanding Crash Testing

In the United States, the number of accidents decreased from 2021 to 2022, yet the total remains alarmingly high at 2.38 million. This statistic underscores the critical importance of crash testing. Crash testing assesses a vehicle's safety features through controlled collisions, with the goal of determining how effectively it can protect its occupants during accidents.

It’s a meticulous test in which vehicles equipped with sensors and cameras are used alongside crash test dummies (anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs)) that mimic human responses to crashes. The data gleaned from these tests are indispensable, providing insights into a vehicle’s structural integrity, restraint systems, and overall safety, guiding vehicle design enhancement.

Automotive crash testing assesses vehicle safety through methods such as physical crash tests, which involve recreating collision scenarios with instrumented dummies; sled testing, an economical approach focusing on seat belts, airbags, and whiplash prevention; and computer simulations, which use advanced software to model vehicle dynamics and safety features during crashes.

Picture Courtesy: Volvo Car Corporation

The results from crash tests provide extensive data, including the timing of airbag deployment, assessments of head impact and injury potential, evaluations of seat belt integrity and tension, analyses of vehicle deformation post-collision, and comparisons between outcomes for belted and unbelted occupants.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducts frontal, side, and rollover collision tests for the New Car Assessment Program. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles.  The overall side barrier test combines the cases of an intersection collision between two vehicles and a vehicle colliding into a fixed object like a tree or utility pole. Finally, rollover test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

An Urge to Shift from Physical Crash Tests to Simulations

Utilizing advanced simulations is vital in minimizing costs related to physical testing, particularly in critical scenarios such as crash tests. According to TTI Associate Transportation Researcher Michael Brackin, conducting a full-scale crash test can incur costs of about $50,000. This substantial investment underscores the significance of each test, especially in the event of a failure.

Role of FEA Simulations for Crash Testing

Emerging as a game-changer, computer simulations through FEA bring a new dimension to crash testing. FEA enables the detailed virtual modeling of a vehicle, subjecting it to various crash scenarios without the need for physical prototypes and facilities for destructive testing. This slashes development time and costs and allows engineers to explore a broader range of test conditions and design iterations. By predicting how different car parts react under specific stresses, simulations facilitate more informed design choices, significantly enhancing safety before a physical prototype is even built.

In parallel, occupant injury criteria extracted from results obtained in different digital ATDs, provide deep understanding on how the human body responds in different crash scenarios. These findings are instrumental in advancing our knowledge of vehicle safety, enabling the development of more effective strategies and innovations to better protect passengers during collisions.

An example of the growing necessity of numerical simulations in crash testing can be seen in Euro NCAP's latest developments. Starting in 2024, Euro NCAP supplements far-side impact testing with virtual testing crashworthiness (VTC), bringing real-world tests and CAE simulations closer together than ever before. The VTC protocol requires the integration of both simulation and physical test data to thoroughly evaluate far-side impact protection. Consequently, additional protocols beyond far-side impact will be introduced into virtual testing, presenting new challenges for safety engineers.

Benefits

The integration of crash test simulations into the automotive development process presents numerous advantages:

• Cost efficiency: Simulations significantly reduce the number of physical prototypes, lowering expenses associated with crash testing.  
• Time savings: They expedite the development cycle, allowing for quicker iteration and refinement.
• Enhanced safety: By providing deeper insights into potential safety issues, simulations enable engineers to adjust early in the design process, thus elevating vehicle safety.
• Facilitate innovation: With the ability to test a wide variety of scenarios virtually, engineers are empowered to explore innovative safety features and designs that would be challenging to assess through traditional methods.
• Environmental benefits: Reducing the need for physical tests results in less waste and energy consumption, which aligns with sustainability goals.

Reaping the Rewards of Innovation

In conclusion, crash test simulations are truly transforming the automotive development cycle. They offer a significantly safer, faster, and more cost-effective approach to vehicle design and present an invaluable opportunity for innovation while ensuring the highest safety standards.

By integrating crash test simulations into their development processes, manufacturers can create vehicles that prioritize safety and excel in efficiency and environmental impact. This benefits consumers and firmly positions companies as trailblazers in automotive innovation.

Explore the future of automotive safety and innovation. Stay ahead of the curve, reduce costs, and deliver unquestionably safer vehicles with the unparalleled power of simulation technology.

To learn more about Cadence Beta CAE ANSA and META pre-and-post processing technologies for crash and safety simulation, respectively, refer to the brochure Crash & Safety- Take Safety to New Levels