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Paper Title:
Vehicle Properties Determining
Aggressivity
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Authors:
Magda Les, Andrew Morris,
Ted Olsson, Janette Pettersson, Kristian Holmqvsit, Janette Pettersson,
Kristian Holmqvsit
Abstract:
Vehicle crashworthiness
and aggressivity are two different dimensions of vehicle safety
performance. The first measures the protection a vehicle affords
its own occupants in a crash, the second typically measures the
protection a vehicle affords occupants of other vehicles with which
it collides. Good performance in one dimension is not necessarily
associated with good performance in the other. In the last decade,
most research into vehicle safety has focused on vehicle crashworthiness,
promoting vehicle designs that potentially overlook the protection
of occupants in the other car in a car-to-car collision. The aim
of this study was to attempt to empirically quantify the effect
various measurable physical vehicle properties have on aggressivity.
Estimates of vehicle
aggressivity have been made for a wide range of popular vehicle
models from analysis of two car crashes reported to Police in three
states in Australia: Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, by
Newstead et al (2000). Data on physical vehicle properties by field
measurement were collected for 72 distinct makes and models of vehicles
that have been rated for aggressivity by Newstead et al (2000).
Expert opinion and literature review was used to select the vehicle
characteristics for measurement most likely to affect aggressivity.
They included, amongst others, such characteristics as vehicle mass
and frontal stiffness and dimensional properties such as bonnet
height and length and placement of key mechanical components relative
to the external surfaces of the vehicle. Multiple regression analysis
was applied to identify those measured physically vehicle properties
that best predicted the estimated vehicle aggressivity index.
Preliminary analysis
results showed relatively high association between vehicle wheelbase,
bonnet leading edge height and bonnet length and the vehicle aggressivity
index.
It is hoped these results
will identify the physical features of the vehicle contributing
most to vehicle aggressivity allowing the development of strategies
for the reduction of vehicle aggressivity.
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