Title: Predicting throw distance variations in bicycle crashes

Authors: S. Mukherjee, A. Chawla, D. Mohan, S. Chandrawat, V. Agarwal

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. ' Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India

Abstract: This paper investigates the correlation between throwing distance and impact speed, point of impact, and angle of approach for varying bicycle–car crash configurations. Crashes between a bicycle and a car were simulated using multibody models developed in MADYMOTM. The Hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy model, available from the MADYMO library, was used. Crash configurations reported in the literature were used and parametric variations were done in speed, angle of approach and point of impact. It is observed that only some configurations show a monotonic dependence of the throwing distance on the car speed.

Keywords: vehicle accidents; MADYMO; crash simulation; throwing distance; impact speed; bicycle crashes; point of impact; angle of approach; bicycle–car crash configurations; multibody modelling; car speed; vehicle safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2006.011232

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2006 Vol.1 No.4, pp.304 - 315

Published online: 06 Nov 2006 *

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