Vehicle accident reconstruction by a reduced order impact model

Area of Science:

• Engineering
• Computational Mechanics
• Accident Reconstruction

Background:

• Road accident reconstruction is crucial for determining event dynamics and responsibilities.
• Existing simulation methods (impulse-momentum, FEM, MBS) have limitations in balancing calculation time and accuracy.
• Current techniques often fail to provide simultaneous detailed kinematics and deformation data or require substantial computational resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a specialized, reduced-order model for efficient road accident reconstruction.
• To develop a simulation approach that minimizes calculation time while maintaining accuracy.
• To provide a method capable of detailing both kinematics and deformation in vehicle impacts.

Main Methods:

• Development of a special-purpose, reduced-order model for accident reconstruction.
• Discretization of vehicle contours in a 2D domain to limit computation time.
• Detailed presentation of the ruling equations governing the 2D simulation approach.

Main Results:

• The 2D model significantly reduces calculation time compared to traditional methods.
• Simulations demonstrated compatibility with actual event dynamics in five vehicle-to-vehicle impact cases.
• The method's potential for practical application in accident reconstruction was emphasized.

Conclusions:

• The proposed 2D reduced-order model offers an efficient and accurate solution for road accident reconstruction.
• This approach effectively balances computational demands with the need for detailed kinematic and deformation analysis.
• The validated model shows significant promise for enhancing the capabilities of accident reconstruction experts.