Frontal collision analysis of City Car

Abstract

This experiment tests the proposed crash system of the CityCar. The car is to fold during the crash to help decrease the impact force experienced by the passengers. The experiment was conducted by running a simulation of the car crashing into a wall compared to that of a rigid car with no folding, and by building a one-fifth scale wooden model of the CityCar, running it into a wall, and measuring the force upon impact. The simulation was ran at 20 mph, 50 mph, and 80 mph, with weight ratios between the front and back of the car respectively of 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 2:1, and 3:1, as well as three variations in the damping of the folding process. Both experiments show that the folding car experienced lower forces than the rigid car. The variations done in the simulation suggest that a back heavy car with considerable damping is best, but these results were a bit inconsistent and unclear and, therefore, will be tested more completely in the future. Results suggest that folding during a crash provides significant help, but this experiment only provides preliminary feedback useful for future analysis of the CityCar.