Estimating a passenger vehicle's SNCAP star rating probability distribution Online publication date: Sun, 25-Feb-2007
by Bing Deng, J.T. Wang, Mark A. Beltramo
International Journal of Vehicle Safety (IJVS), Vol. 2, No. 1/2, 2007
Abstract: This paper presents a statistical method to predict Side-Impact New Car Assessment Programme (SNCAP) star ratings at early stages of the vehicle development process when only limited vehicle information, such as basic dimensions and restraint choices, is available. The heart of this method is a probabilistic model, in which the probability distribution of SNCAP star ratings, conditional on vehicle characteristics, is estimated using residual analysis. A total of 80 SNCAP tests from model year 1999 to model year 2002 were collected from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) public database and used for the analysis. Given a vehicle's basic dimensions and the choice of side air bags, the estimated probabilities reflect variations among similar existing vehicles due to detailed vehicle structure design, interior geometry layout, restraint system design and the inherent variability of hardware and crash testing. The statistical method developed in this study provides a fast, probabilistic assessment of a concept vehicle's potential SNCAP performance.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Vehicle Safety (IJVS):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook