Development and Evaluation of a Vehicle Interior Impactor

摘要

A vehicle interior impactor was designed and fabricated to permit evaluation of vehicle interior surfaces with regard to their energy absorbing characteristics. This device can evaluate interior surfaces of production vehicles without their modification and at lower cost and in less time than impact sled testing. The impactor is adjustable to permit almost any vehicle interior surface to be targeted. A series of 135 test runs were made with the impactor to evaluate its performance. The testing demonstrated the impactor's ability to propel different kind of body forms. Installing the impactor inside the vehicle showed that it could accomodate the range of positions needed to meet the testing requirements of the NHTSA follow-on program, 'Study of Occupant Impact with Vehicle Interior Surfaces.'