Behaviour of passenger cars on impact with underride guards
by H.J. Beermann
International Journal of Vehicle Design (IJVD), Vol. 5, No. 1/2, 1984

Abstract: Much experience has been gathered on the impact behaviour of passenger cars crashing against flat barriers. This is quite different from impacting underride guards at the rear end of commercial vehicles. The side members in the car's front structure are the main energy absorbing structural elements, thus it is of considerable significance whether they hit on the underrider beam. Thirty-four clash tests were carried out in order to measure impact forcer and deformations. The quadstatic crush forces of simplified side members can be calculated by approximation on the basis of many experimental results. A ratio of crash to crush forces was found from dynamic impact and static crush tests. The frontal impact of a passenger car on a flat barrier was simulated by crashing a simplified structural model consisting of an engine, gearbox, and front-axle, etc. The required strength of an underride prevention device can be found from the deformation resistance of the ramming car's front structure. The weight of the commercial vehicle carrying the underride guard has little influence on the impact force and deformation because as the kinetic energy to be absorbed does not decrease in proportion as the commercial vehicle's weight is reduced and, because of its inertia, the vehicle hardly moves until the peak clashing load is reached. Quasistatic strength requirements are presented as an aid in the design of underride guards.

Online publication date: Sun, 25-May-2014

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