Abstract
KEYWORDS – Side impact, pole, crash testing, structural analysis, acquisition system
ABSTRACT – Due to the lack of information obtained from the side impact test analysis, it was decided to fully instrument a pole with triaxial load cells. The data obtained from the test make it possible to know the most critical parts of the vehicle structure and their performance. Furthermore, it will be easier to define the structural parts that need to be improved in the vehicle and the different aspects that need to be taken into account in order to guarantee the safety of the occupants.
This paper explains the design and development of the fully-instrumented pole as well as the simulation of the new pole design. An in-depth analysis of the forces that are involved in the side impact pole test and how these forces affect the structure behavior of the vehicle is also presented.
A second stage of this project would be a validation test with the pole instrumented in order to validate the acquisition data of the instrumented pole and the calculations and assumptions made in this first part of the project.