2-DIMENSIONAL COLLISIONS OF VEHICLES - CASE OF CONSIDERATION OF VEHICLE MOVEMENTS DURING IMPACT

This paper deals with two-dimensional collisions of vehicles based on impulse-momentum relationships. Conventionally, the impact is assumed to occur in an instant, and movements of the vehicles during impact ar e ignored. In general, however, vehicles are deformed and move in rela tion to each other throughout the duration of impact. If these deforma tion and movement are neglected, significant: errors occur under certa in impact conditions. In this paper, it is assumed that vehicle deform ations are characterized by a linear plastic body, and the impact plan e and the impact point are determined from the shape of the crushed re gion al each time step. Collision problems considering vehicle movemen ts during impact can be analyzed using this method. Several results of collision analysis are shown for comparison between this method and t he method ignoring vehicle movements. Finally, the vehicle velocities immediately after impact and the vehicle trajectories are discussed.