Crash tests

The safety of the ZEBRA battery has been proven extensively by abuse testing overheating, overcharging, short-circuiting of battery terminals and of cell groups, crash tests on the battery itself by dropping it at 50 km h 1 onto a pole or spike, and crash tests of cars with built-in ZEBRA batteries at 50 kmh-1 [10]. The results of abuse testing prove the ZEBRA battery to be a safe battery system. 

A crash test rig was developed to simulate the high loads on components in and on street vehicles in the case of a colhsion. It provides profiles of deformation, energy dissipation and retardation as a function of time. The effect of test velocity and temp, on the behaviour of PP foam (Neopolen P) samples of various density was examined. 2 refs. 

BMW tested its hydrogen tanks in a series of collisions that caused both fire and tank ruptures. In most of these tests, H2 was found to be safer than gasoline or diesel fuels. The simulated 55-mph crash tests left the cars totaled, but the newly designed hydrogen tanks remained intact. Although pressurized hydrogen tanks could explode, enormous impact forces would be required and, therefore, they are reasonably safe. 

Swaan PW, Ekins S. Reengineering the pharmaceutical industry by crash-testing molecules. Drug Discov Today 2005 10(17) 1191-1200. 

As GM and the other automakers fought the ZEV mandate, there was clear evidence that the battery technology was better than they were letting on. An upstart company in Massachusetts, Solectria, had used an old contract that predated the sale to GM to obtain the Ovonics batteries. It used those batteries to build a four-passenger car that resembled the streamlined EV1, and that had been crash-tested with impressive results its light but very strong construction seemed to make it one of the safest cars on the road. 

Curing and aging of both epoxy systems is studied on two types of stainless steel. Substrate 1 (SSI) is a common stainless steel with 18% Cr and 8% Ni (Nirosta 4301). Substrate 2 (SS2) is a stainless steel containing 19% Cr, 7% Mn, and 3% Ni (Nirosta H400). SS2 performs excellently in crash tests. Both substrates possess rough surfaces due to the treatment by etching and blasting with steel beads (Rrms,ssi = 2.0 pm, Rrms,ss2 = 2.7 pm). 

Today virtual realities are used more and more frequently to simulate complex processes in systems which are hard to parameterise. Well-known examples from the industry are the simulation of car crash tests or the simulation of traffic for town planning. Here a concept is presented for the use of virtual realities to investigate exploration, monitoring and remediation strategies for contaminated aquifer systems. 

Physical prototypes are used for testing and evaluation of product properties in the early development stages of product development. VR permits testing and evaluation to be conducted in virtual prototypes. The objective is to avoid physical prototypes if possible. Research is being conducted in the automotive and aerospace industries (Leston et al. 1996). Apart from purely design-oriented tasks, efforts are also being made to conduct physical materials tests, such as crash tests, in virtual proto-... 

Two life size crash test dummies, used to demonstrate the importance of wearing seat belts in moving cars in the 1970s, are constructed from plasticized PVC. Their surfaces are shiny and discoloured and their forms have softened and distorted due to the migration of plasticizer. Glass dishes have been placed in the well-sealed showcase to collect dripping plasticizer. 

Foster, J.K., Kortge, J.O., and Wolanin, M.J., Hybrid 111-A BiomechanicaUy-Based Crash Test Dummy, Stapp Car Crash Conference, pp. 975-1014, SAE Paper No. 770938, Society of Automotive Engineers, Warrendale, PA, 1977. 

The focus of this chapter is on composite stmctures, which due to their high SEA compared with metallic beam and plate stmctures are of particular interest for the helicopter subfloor. Composite subfloor box concept stmctures were developed in CRASURV [22] and validated by an extensive design, manufacture and crash test... 

Design and crash test of composite helicopter frame structure... 

The manufacture and crash tests on the frame concept stmcture demonstrated the success of the concept at the crash energy levels in the test. The upper frame remained intact and was stiff enough to maintain cabin volume and provide the required resisting force at floor level for crushing the sacrificial EA trapezoidal subfloor absorber elements. The trapezoidal sandwich absorber elements were triggered successfully to prevent excessive peak loads and exhibited the required steady crush behaviour until the stmcture was brought to rest. 

Table 10.3 Summary of results from crash tests and finite element (FE) simulations on the frame structure...

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