Ernst Pullwitt, Wolfgang Sievert

• Bei der Untersuchung des Insassenschutzes von Pkw's bei Seitenkollisionen wurden als seitlich auftreffende Fahrzeuge neben Pkw auch unterschiedliche Barrierenformen verwendet. Um die Zahl der Prüfungen im Typgenehmigungsverfahren für neue Pkw-Modelle gering zu halten, wurde von der europäischen Automobilindustrie ein Vorschlag zur Harmonisierung europäischer und amerikanischer Lösungen entwickelt. Es wurden zwei Versuchsserien zur Beurteilung des Quergeschwindigkeitseinflusses mit Fahrzeugen europäischer Größenverhältnisse durchgeführt sowie eine Serie mit einer Versuchskonfiguration, die zur Harmonisierung vorgeschlagen wurde. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse zeigen, dass die Kombination einer mobilen deformierbaren Barriere mit Bewegungsparametern zur Simulation eines Querbewegungseinflusses durch kinematische Umkehrung am gestoßenen Fahrzeug nur zu einem geringen Teil die gleiche Belastung bewirkt, wie bei der Kollision mit zwei bewegten Fahrzeugen.
• For some years now, the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) has been carrying out work on the protection of private car passengers in lateral collisions. In addition to private cars, various barrier forms have been used as side-striking vehicles in a number of research projects with various objectives. The BASt has also played e considerable role in the development and validation of the EEVC barrier face. Efforts in Europe and the U.S.A. to improve the protection of private car passengers in lateral collisions have led to the separate develop-ment of lateral collision test procedures. The European solutions (CCMC and EEVC) are very similar with respect to the test tool, test parameters and evaluation and represent practicable test procedures. The American proposal not only differs from the European solutions with respect to the design of the test tool (mass and width of the barrier front), but it also considers the proper motion of the side-struck vehicle during an angular collision. In an effort to keep down the number of tests in the type approval test procedure for net/ private cars, a proposal for harmonisation which contains elements of both the European and American solutions has been elaborated and put up for discussion by the European car industry. In addition to considering data from tests to evaluate the European test proposals, this investigation also conducted two series of tests with vehicles of the size driven in Europe (VW Golf, DB W 123) to determine the influence of transversal velocity, and a series with a test configuration suggested for the harmonisation process. The tests were evaluated with regard to the load on the vehicles (measurement of acceleration and deformation) and on the dummies (measurement of the acceleration in the head, chest and pelvis) and the results then compared with one another. Compared with the tests with a stationary vehicle, the tests with moving vehicles produced a lower deformation and, as a function of the differences in mass, a higher load on the driver dummy in the side-struck vehicle. A direct comparison of the tests with the EEVC barrier with impact angles of 90-° and 63-° revealed considerable differences in the kinematic behaviour of the vehicles, similar deformations to the struck vehicle and a considerably lower load on the front dummy. If one considers the results and the differences which came to light, it is possible to establish that combining a mobile deformable barrier with the movement parameters for simulating the influence of transversal movement by kinematic inversion (Umkehrung) on the struck vehicle produces the same load as a collision between two moving vehicles in only a few cases. Simulation of the transversal movement is not essential for taking into account the peculiarities of a real lateral collision, i.e. for adapting the test procedure; this can also be achieved by altering other parameters. A useful - and the easiest - measure involves increasing the ground clearance. The test can also be made "harder" by increasing the test velocity or mass or by partially increasing the rigidity of the deformation elements, i.e. the test can be adjusted to the higher dummy loads experienced during a lateral collision between two moving vehicles. The necessity to make the test "harder" has to be proofed in comparable tests with the EUROSID which is now in development because in the here described tests Hybrid II-dummies were used.