A Team of Experts Develops Revolutionary Design to Reduce Fatal Crashes in Car-Truck Collisions
The development of a new truck front aims to improve safety for car occupants in collisions with heavy goods vehicles (HGVs).
The Swedish Transport Administration, Trafikverket, conducted tests on the new truck front and found that it could significantly reduce the deformation of a passenger car compartment by
The most common types of accidents in these collisions are head-on crashes on rural roads and rear-end crashes on highways. In the majority of traffic accidents involving HGVs, it is the other party who dies, usually in a passenger car. To improve the survival rates of passengers in these types of collisions, it is crucial to investigate further and develop better truck designs.
While modern passenger cars are equipped to withstand a collision at
In order for a passenger car occupant to survive a head-on collision with a truck, the cabin in the passenger car must remain intact. However, this is currently not possible to guarantee, even in the most modern cars. Therefore, the research team at Chalmers University of Technology is dedicated to finding ways to protect car passengers and truck drivers in the future.
The structural elements of cars and trucks, such as bumpers, energy-absorbing beams, and passenger compartment frames, are designed to either deform and absorb energy or remain intact and protect occupants. However, these localized structures often do not interact the way they were intended, resulting in a less efficient crash response. To address this issue, the team at Chalmers University of Technology developed a truck front that would improve the collision process. This latest design was based on previous research carried out at the university.
The new truck front's internal design is made of aluminum honeycomb, a structure composed of repeating hexagonal tubes that are primarily made of air. This lightweight, energy-absorbing structure is commonly used in crash test barriers to provide a distributed force and absorb energy. By adjusting the thickness of the aluminum foil, the force and deformation characteristics can be changed, making it a flexible and effective solution for crashworthiness designs.
The new truck front takes advantage of the
According to Rikard Fredriksson, Senior Advisor at Trafikverket and Adjunct Professor at Chalmers, a truck is involved in every