How well will your car protect you in a crash? The fact is some cars fare better than others in a collision. Automakers are continually working to improve the vehicles we drive because they want to deliver safe cars to the consumer. In 2000, the global steel industry began a vehicle concept program, Ultra Light Steel Auto Body-Advanced Vehicle Concepts (ULSAB-AVC), to provide engineering input into the effective use of steel in building safe vehicles. These concepts, designed by Porsche Engineering Services, Inc. (PES) offer advances in steel design to produce safe vehicles that can be affordably built, and are fuel efficient.

By 2004, automakers expect regulation-mandated crash test requirements to be much stricter. This will mean steel concept designs will be subjected to a mix of six computer-simulated crash events (35 mph, 40% overlap offset, 38.5 mph side impact, 30 mph rear impact, roof crush/rollover and side pole impact), which represent far-more demanding requirements than those applied today.

The primary reason for any crash test is to determine a vehicle’s structural design for occupant safety. If a vehicle has good structural design it will have a strong driver and passenger compartment (known as the safety cage), and the front and rear end will be designed to absorb impact by a planned, progressive collapse. When the structure collapses, in accordion-pleat fashion, it absorbs crash energy. This energy keeps the vehicle away from the driver and passengers. If it does not collapse properly, a greater degree of the crash force will be felt in the safety cage. The likelihood that passengers and driver will be injured is greater. Designed effectively, the structure will absorb the majority of the force, protecting the occupants.

One of the most important comparison tools, and the most important safety feature to reduce the risk of death or serious injury in an accident, is how well a vehicle performs in a crash test. Test programs, or New Car Assessment Programs (NCAP) were developed to cover the type of crashes that are likely to cause serious injury. The differences in how safe one vehicle is compared to another, can be determined in the NCAP tests.

Looking on, it appears that all crash tests produce the same result: a mangled car. However, each test is proving a different factor of vehicle safety. The most common tests used worldwide include the following:

These tests are basic to vehicle testing worldwide. In North America, a vehicle can receive from one to five stars, indicating the level of injury to head and chest separately for the full frontal and side impact crash tests. Five stars, for instance, means a 10 percent chance of serious injury and one star means nearly a 50/50 chance of serious injury. The European rating systems assigns one to four stars, using equivalent European New Car Assessment Program tests.

All cars on the road must pass the required safety crash test. However, not all cars are created equal. Some crush zones are too stiff, too short and/or the safety cages aren’t strong enough. During a crash test, it can be determined where the vehicle fails to provide structural strength and dynamics to protect the safety cage. ULSAB-AVC uses crash testing to create safe structures by "computer crashing" vehicle systems (front end) as they are designed. It’s during these simulations that weaknesses are revealed, enabling design engineers to add the structural strength to protect the safety cage.

This computer crashing is done through software which simulates what happens to the structure in a real crash. After the simulation is performed, PES reviews performance, then alters the design. This information is provided to the automakers offering them a solid basis for building steel vehicles from ULSAB-AVC designs or creating their own steel designs based on the findings.

Why Steel? Steel is a material that is unique in its inherent capacity to absorb an impact, thus diffusing crash energy. Concepts made from steel have many benefits such as collapsibility (by design), and the ability to become harder when crushed.

Copyright 2002. Susan Frissell. Women With Wheels. All Rights Reserved.