Abstract
This report deals with various ways of improving the compatibility of two accident opponents. Currently, the design for passive safety of personal cars is based on crash tests against deformable or rigid barriers. Such tests are expected to represent real crashes as well as possible. This design approach is valid when accidents involving rigid obstacles or cars of similar mass are being considered. However, in accidents involving cars with significantly different masses, the lighter vehicle is always at a physical disadvantage. The shown conceptional ideas should minimize these disadvantages.
In the first part the theoretical background will be shown. Why is compatibility so important? For which accident opponents are solutions possible? On this basis the presented results are formed by FE computations examining the effects of frontal- and side-crashes involving different speeds, vehicles and vehicle positions. The concepts developed on the basis of these simulations are divided into those applicable to self-protection and those applicable to partner protection, and they also are particular to the different crash configurations. For example, in frontal crash, solutions are thinkable which allow the oppononts to slide off one another or situations must be avoided in which one vehicle is 'over-run' by the other, e.g. SUV against sports car.
In side impact, the main emphasis of the investigations is on structural measures aimed at improving the doors. This requires the different geometries, weights and heights of the crash opponents to be taken into account. The intrusions and thus the loads on the occupants are minimized by distributing the load acting on the door to the body-in-white. To achieve this, a door reinforcement with optimal geometry and material properties is necessary .