Developing an aluminum honeycomb barrier to represent a striking SUV in a side impact crash test

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) introduced its side impact ratings test in 2003. Despite manufacturers' improvements to airbags and vehicle structures, 45% of 2018 side crash fatalities on U.S. roadways were in good-rated vehicles, suggesting that more crashworthiness improvements are necessary. Crash trends indicate that the most promising avenue to address the remaining real-world injuries is a higher severity vehicle-to-vehicle test using a barrier to represent a striking sport-utility vehicle (SUV). Laboratory tests comparing striking SUVs with the current IIHS moving deformable barrier (MDB) showed discrepancies in damage patterns and injury measures. The current study outlines the characteristics of a multi-stiffness aluminum honeycomb barrier to represent a modern SUV-striking vehicle in side impact crash tests.

Barrier size and shape were determined from a series of measurements taken from 21 modern SUVs. Barrier honeycomb stiffness characteristics were derived by comparing the damage profile of six different barrier prototypes against a baseline profile obtained from a high-severity SUV crash into a midsize car. Tests were conducted at 60 km/h with a 1,900 kg MDB. The best honeycomb design was tested against four additional vehicles to ensure it was representative of striking SUVs of different sizes and types.

The final barrier has a 1,700-mm width by 600-mm height and 500-mm depth multi-stiffness design, with less stiffness on the top and more stiffness in the lower outside sections compared with the original IIHS barrier. For three struck vehicles, the redesigned barrier matched all performance criteria set by the striking-SUV tests. For two additional struck vehicles, there were some differences in intrusion patterns but overall, these matched the test trends of the striking SUVs. The new barrier in a higher severity test mode resulted in a range of performance for these good-rated vehicles.

A multi-stiffness aluminum honeycomb barrier was developed to represent the characteristics of striking SUVs in 60 km/h perpendicular side impact crash tests focusing on the occupant compartment. The redesigned barrier differentiates between currently good-rated vehicles, which will promote structural and restraint system improvements to the fleet relevant to the remaining real-world injuries.