History of Crashworthiness

8/19/2019 History of Crashworthiness

1/26

Car Body Design

COMECar Body Design

1 – History of Crashworthiness

Dr. habil. Fabian DuddeckDepartment of Engineering

Queen Mary College, London University

Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


2/26

Car Body Design

First Motor Cars, 1886

Carl Benz(1844 – 1929)

Benz Car (1886)


3/26

Car Body Design

First Motor Race, 1895

Champion: J. Frank Duryea, Mean Velocity: 12 km/h


4/26Car Body Design

First Killed Pedestrians, 1896

Mrs. Bridgette Driscol of Croyden was the first personkilled by a car when she left the Crystal Palace in London.


5/26Car Body Design

Year 1906/07 1907/08 1908/09 1909/10 1910/11 1911/12

6,774 8,431

11.8

4,262

343

11.5

10,105

12.6

5,5423,651

278 442

1912/13

Car accidents 4,864 5,069 6,063 11,785

Killed occupants 145 141 194 504

Accidents per

100 cars13.2 11.9 11.9 12.3

Injured occupants 2,419 2,630 2,945 6,313

Early Accident Statist ics (Germany)


6/26Car Body Design

Change the Car/Driver or the Victim/Environment?

• In 1913, more than 4,000 people

died in car accidents (USA).

• By the 1930s, more than 30,000

people died every year.

• In an effort to lower accident and

death rates, safety advocates

stressed the Three Es:

– engineering,

– enforcement, and

– education.

• Since most safety advocates

assumed that careless people were

the cause of wrecks, early safetyefforts focused on educating drivers

and pedestrians, rather than

designing and producing safer

automobiles and highways.

1908


7/26Car Body Design

Education

Song by Charles P. Hughes, 1924

The song’s lyrics were laden with

advice to avoid being hit by a car, but

placed the onus of responsibility on

the child, not the driver:

“When you're playing in the street don't

forget that danger's near With the noise of scrambling feet you

can't hear the cars appear

And soon the little friend you loved lies

in pain

You may never see him again.” “Beware Little Children”From the Smithsonian Collection

“10,000 Little Children were killed by

autos in 1924. There are 12 principalCommandments of Safety. Keep theseand you will be safe from accidents. Besure to show your work to daddy andmother and your teacher. Be a little

Apostle of Safety. Have your teacher forman ‘ABC’ Club, which means ‘Always BeCareful,’ and sing the Safety Song athome and in school.”

E l A id t


8/26Car Body Design

Early Accidents

Rigid Structure for Safety?

Is this a safe vehicle?Is this a safe vehicle?

Fi t E i t


9/26Car Body Design

First Experiments

DKW Auto-Union, 1937/38

• The AUTO UNION AG, based in

Chemnitz, Germany, was the firstcar manufacturer to develop anempirical crash program in1937/38.

• They performed front, side, poleimpacts and rollover tests.

• The rollovers were captured in atest film, the other tests were toofast. The cars were droppedsideways from a ramp.

• The intention was to test thestrength of the bodies as part of thedevelopment program for the

introduction of plastic or woodenstructures.

• The studies were motivated by theaim to replace metal for car

structures by wood or plasticswithout loosing crashworthiness.

Fi t Bi h i


10/26Car Body Design

First Biomechanics

John Paul Stapp, 1944

• In 1944, John Stapp started

research in aerospace medicine

for the U.S. air force.

• The first rocket-sled deceleration

research program at Edwards Air

Force Base on the Mojave Desertwas Stapp's first project related to

passive safety.

• His assignment was to determine

human tolerance to decelerationand protection from crash forces.

• John Stapp started to be concerned

not with the structure but with the

human body.• Often, he himself was the test

object.

First Biomechanics


11/26

Car Body Design

First Biomechanics

John Paul Stapp, 1944

• The rocket-sled accelerated 400 m on

tracks to attain aircraft landing speeds,then was subjected to aircraft crash

deceleration. Metal scoops beneath

the sled plowed into a trough of water

for the slow-down.• Thirty-two rocket runs were made with

a dummy passenger before Stapp took

his first ride in Dec. 1947. By

May 1948 he had taken 16 rides inthe backward-facing position, with

stresses up to 35 times the pull of

gravity. This was double the stress

that had previously been set as the

limit of human tolerance.

• These experiments proved that

backward-facing seats would give air

transport passengers optimum crash

protection.

First Conferences 1955


12/26

Car Body Design

First Conferences, 1955

John Paul Stapp

• The first Car Crash Conferences

were organized in 1955 by

John P. Stapp.

• He presented at the Holloman Air

Base sled tests and auto crash

tests; aspects of automotive designand safety features were discussed.

• Many of the safety features

discussed and recommended were

passed along to traffic experts andautomotive engineers, e.g.:

- moving dashboards

- energy absorbing padding;

- fitting doors with safety locks;

- removing rear window shelves;

- fastening seats

- bumper design;

http://www.stapp.org

50th Stapp Car

Crash

Conference

November 6-8,

2006

Public Attention to Car Safety

http://www.stapp.org/http://www.stapp.org/


13/26

Car Body Design


Ralph Nader, 1965: Unsafe at any Speed

• Nader was referring to the Chevrolet Corvair as"Unsafe at Any Speed", NOT all cars unsafe at

any speed, with the implication that speed limits

must be cracked down on.

• Ralph Nader’s controversial book alerted thepublic to unsafe features of automotive design

and played a key role in establishing

government safety standards for cars.

In 1965, Ralph Nader targeted

General Motors and the

American auto industry in his

best-selling book Unsafe at any

Speed – The Designed-In

Dangers of the American Automobile.



14/26

Car Body Design

Chevrolet Corvair


Ralph Nader, 1965: Unsafe at any Speed

Béla Barényi 1907 – 1997


15/26

Car Body Design

Béla Barényi, 1907 – 1997

Patent for the Crash Crumble Zone, 1951

Béla Barényi 1950 – 1960


16/26

Car Body Design

Béla Barényi, 1950 1960

Crash-safe Door Lock

Simulation Model for a Current

Door Lock, BMW, 2004.

Mercedes Benz, 1950s


17/26

Car Body Design

Mercedes Benz, 1950s

First Sled Tests

• Insights:

• The possibility to survive in a crash

with 50 km/h was almost zero;

• 25% of the fatalities happened

because the occupants were thrown

out of the vehicles;

• The design of the interior is not

adequate to prevent severe head

injuries;

• The newly proposed belting

systems are really improving safety;

• The steering wheel and the

instrumental board should be

adopted to head and chest impacts.

Mercedes Benz, 1962


18/26

Car Body Design

Mercedes Benz, 1962

Crash Barriers along the Roads

Daimler-Benz, 1962


19/26

Car Body Design

,

Rocket Wagon for Crash Tests

• For acceleration (14 m/s²), a hot

water rocket wagon was developed

(pressurized container, fast opening

valve, ejection nozzle).

• The container is filled with water

and heated up (temperature: 260°C, 50 at). After opening of the valve,

the water is vaporizing outside of

the container.

• It was not possible to integrate therocket into the vehicle itself without

modifying the structure remarkably.

Béla Barényi, 1963


20/26

Car Body Design

y ,

Patent for a Safety Steering Wheel

Full Car Crash Tests (Frontal Impact)


21/26

Car Body Design

( p )

BMW (1966) and Mercedes-Benz (1960s)

BMW

Mercedes-Benz

Barrier tests Car-to-car and roll-over tests

Establishment of Crash Tests


22/26

Car Body Design

E.g. Mercedes Benz, 1970s

• New acceleration method based

on an electric linear motor thatruns underneath the vehicles

along a 100-meter trench.

• New video systems have been

developed.

• Deformable and non-deformable

barriers were used.

First Seat Belts and Airbags


23/26

Car Body Design

Mercedes Benz, 1980

• First Safety belts already in the19th century;

• Nils Bohlin invented the three-

point belt and introduced it into the

Volvo cars in 1959.• First Airbags really applied in the

1980ies.

Modern Test Tracks


24/26

Car Body Design

UTAC, Paris

Crash Video


25/26

Car Body Design

Renault / UTAC, 2005

Crashed Cars

D i l Ch l


26/26

Car Body Design

DaimlerChrysler

Documents

History of Crashworthiness