F2008-08-072
New Protection Systems and Related Testing Methods for Head Impact of Pedestrians
In most cases the customer of a vehicle is the occupant himself. This interest is clearly dominating and leading to an advanced development status of occupant protection. But during the past years also the protection of pedestrians gained an increasing importance due to legislation Phase I of Directive 2003/102/EC since October 1st 2005 followed by Phase II which originally should come into force in September 2010 as well as consumer testing requirements in EuroNCAP. Similar requirements exist in Japan and a Global Technical Regulation (GTR), which includes nearly all industrialised countries, is currently discussed.
In October 2007 the European Commission proposed to adopt a regulation instead of a directive and also extended the phase-in for more demanding requirements which contain a combination of active and passive safety measures i.e. including the Brake Assist (BAS). The original version of Directive 2003/102/EC Phase II, based on the EEVC WG 17 proposal, has been declared as not feasible. In all these procedures the protection potential is tested by the use of subsystems including impactors for the head, upper leg and lower leg.
Taking all these developments and existing testing procedures into account, both new vehicle systems and their related testing procedures for head impacts are investigated and further developed within national and European research projects at ika (APROSYS - Advanced PROtection SYStems). Vehicle systems and testing procedures show interdependency. The outcome of testing procedures includes new vehicle systems, which can be the input for adapted testing methods at the same time (e.g. dynamic tests for airbags). Improved testing procedures which should bring the real-world accident more adequately into the test lab will be presented. These procedures should also be robust, repeatable and cost-beneficial at the same time.
The possibilities for the improvement of the pedestrian protection in the context of testing methods and vehicle systems will be addressed in the paper. Based on the detailed analysis of good EuroNCAP rated vehicles, remaining critical impact areas on the vehicle fronts, mainly the frame regions of bonnet and windscreen will be highlighted. Accident analysis has underlined the relevance of this area in real-world accidents. For these regions both new concepts of passive-only and deployable systems with main focus on pop-up bonnets and external airbags will be shown.
The aim will be to analyse the protection potential of new testing methods and vehicle system technologies for the head impact in the bonnet and windscreen frame area. Future developments of pedestrian safety features and the sustainability of vehicle safety systems as an outcome of their related testing methods will be included.
Session: Occupant & Pedestrian Protection II