Evaluation of the occupant response and structural damage according to the newly proposed pole test under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard side impact regulation

Every year around the world various types of automobile accidents occur, out of which side impact vehicular collisions are the most severe. Of these, side crashes into fixed narrow objects like trees, poles account for quarter percent of total deaths and serious injuries. Moreover these side impacts present a difficult problem for improving automotive crashworthiness because of the limited crushable zone between the vehicle occupant and the intruding door structure. To improve the automotive safety in side impacts a new pole test has been proposed under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 214 to make the existing regulation more comprehensive in addressing the critical head and neck injuries in addition to thoracic and pelvis injuries.;In this thesis, a finite element model of the Ford Taurus and Moving Deformable Barrier (MDB) as developed by National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) has been used for the impact analysis. The US DOT-SID side impact dummy taken from MADYMO dummy database has been used as the vehicle occupant and the rigid pole modeled in MSC.Patran software as the narrow object.;Computer Simulations have been analyzed according to the new proposed pole test and (FMVSS) 214 regulation. The critical injury values, the occupant kinematics and the structural damage have been compared justifying the need for the new pole test for improving the occupant safety.