title: Development of a frontal small overlap crashworthiness evaluation test.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Small overlap frontal crashes are those in which crash forces are applied outboard of the vehicle's longitudinal frame rails. In-depth analyses of crashes indicate that such crashes account for a significant proportion of frontal crashes with seriously injured occupants. The objective of this research was to evaluate possible barrier crash tests that could be used to evaluate the crashworthiness of vehicles across a spectrum of small overlap crash types.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen full-scale vehicle tests were conducted using 3 midsize passenger vehicles in up to 6 different test configurations, including vehicle-to-vehicle and barrier tests. All vehicles were tested at 64 km/h with an instrumented Hybrid III midsize male driver dummy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All test configurations resulted in primary loading of the wheel, suspension system, and hinge pillar. Vehicles underwent substantial lateral movement during the crash, which varied by crash configuration. The occupant compartments had significant intrusion, particularly to the most outboard structures. Inboard movement of the steering wheel in combination with outboard movement of the dummies (due to the lateral vehicle motion) caused limited interaction with the frontal air bag in most cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When assessing overall crashworthiness (based on injury measures, structural deformation, and occupant kinematics), one vehicle had superior performance in each crash configuration. This was confirmation that the countermeasures benefiting performance in a single small overlap test also will provide a benefit in other crash configurations. Based on these test results, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has developed a small overlap crashworthiness evaluation with the following characteristics: a rigid flat barrier with a 150-mm corner radius, 25 percent overlap, 64 km/h test speed, and a Hybrid III midsize male driver dummy.
authors.affiliation: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 N Glebe Rd., Arlington, VA 22201, USA. csherwood@iihs.org
authors.forename: Christopher P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Sherwood
authors.forename: Becky C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Joseph M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Nolan
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Zuby
authors.forename: Adrian K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Lund
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008348:Manikins; D008954:Models, Biological; D018986:Motor Vehicles / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012449:Safety; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology*