Experimental Testing of Energy-Absorbing Structures Used to Enhance the Crashworthiness of the Vehicles

Jerzy Jackowski, Paweł Posuniak (), Karol Zielonka and Rafał Jurecki
Additional contact information
Jerzy Jackowski: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Vehicles and Transportation, Military University of Technology (WAT), ul. Gen. Sylwestra Kaliskiego 2, 00-908 Warsaw, Poland
Paweł Posuniak: Łukasiewicz Research Network — Automotive Industry Institute (Łukasiewicz – PIMOT), Jagiellonska 55 Street, 03-301 Warsaw, Poland
Karol Zielonka: Łukasiewicz Research Network — Automotive Industry Institute (Łukasiewicz – PIMOT), Jagiellonska 55 Street, 03-301 Warsaw, Poland
Rafał Jurecki: Department of Automotive Engineering and Transport, Faculty of Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering, Kielce University of Technology, Ave. Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego 7, 25-314 Kielce, Poland

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-19

Abstract: Selected structures intended to absorb impact energy have been analysed in respect of their use in the rear underrun protective devices (RUPD) of motor trucks. The main purpose of the RUPD is to prevent a passenger car from running under the rear of a motor truck provided with such a device. From the point of view of the safety of the car occupants, it is important to take into account the components whose additional role would be to absorb a part of the impact energy so that the loads on the said occupants were minimised. This article presents experimental test results concerning selected energy-absorbing structures. Based on quasi-static strength tests, simplified material models were defined. As a result of experimental crash tests, the possible applications of selected energy absorbers to the RUPDs as their components accountable for the passive safety of passenger cars were indicated. Absorbers proposed in this paper can be considered effective energy-absorbing structures, e.g., in the case of the central impact of a medium-class car with a speed of about 40 km/h. They are relatively inexpensive in production and easily implementable to motor trucks, even taking into account some limitations related to the type-approval regulations on the European market.

Keywords: vehicle safety; energy efficiency; crashworthiness; vehicle testing; modelling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2183/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2183/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2183-:d:1078956

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().