Introduction
Crumple zones are safety features at the front and rear of the modern car that are designed to fold inwards in a crash and absorb the main force of the impact to minimise the risk of serious injury to the vehicle’s occupants.
Development
Prior to the invention of crumple zones, vehicles were strong and rigid, which during a crash scenario often resulted in serious injury or death. In 1959, a Hungarian-Austrian engineer named Béla Barényi first implemented the design of crumple zones suggesting that placing the car’s components in a certain configuration would keep the kinetic energy in the event of a crash, away from the occupants within. Furthermore, in 1990, Volvo launched a Side Impact Protection System which was more enhanced
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This occurs as energy is absorbed from the impact as the car’s structure crumples. A crumple zone is intended to slow down the crash and also absorb kinetic energy to reduce the difference between the speed of the car (occupants still travelling at speed due to momentum) and the car (abruptly halted). Some parts of the car’s ‘crumple zones’ crumple on impact leaving the solid cabin intact (where the passenger sit). Impact energy that affects the reinforced cabin area will be distributed over a wider area.
The force of the impact can be greatly reduced even with a slight reduction in speed. Crash test results show the occupant injury and death can be reduced by designing vehicles with softer front end structures. Statistics show the risk of being killed in a motor vehicle on US roads has decreased each year.
A crumple zone may stop a car upon collision in 0.2 seconds as opposed to 0.1 seconds (if the car did not have a crumple zone). In this scenario, the crumple zone cut the force of the crash by half.
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For example, if a vehicle is travelling at 50kph, the occupants inside are as well, and if the vehicle hits a solid wall and comes to a sudden stop, the bodies will continue to travel in the same direction at 50kph.
Force is measured by the body of mass multiplied by the acceleration or deceleration of the car. The mass of the vehicle and the deceleration are proportional and relates to Newton’s second law of motion in that increasing the mass will increase the deceleration of the vehicle and therefore, determines the amount of force applied on the vehicle and its occupants. This particular law states that the force the car applies on a wall or object is identical to the force that the wall or object will apply on the car and its
In a car crash, the more weight there is, the risk of injuries drops (Williams, May Twenty-second, 2015). In most semi truck accidents (about seventy percent of semi truck accidents), when only the semi truck and trailer alone are involved, there are no deaths. But when another vehicle (such as a car, van, or pickup truck ) is involved, about ninety-eight percent of the time there is at least one fatality, which is really low compared to some other means of transportation (such as a train or an airplane) (EJustice, 2012).
...ility of the experimental method is somewhat limited in that some outcomes cannot generalize into real world outcomes. The design method used was also expensive, since there are several pieces of equipment and tools that were required to complete the study. Further, the reliability of the study is limited in that it failed to identify and analyze the relative import of other factors that could lead to fatal accidents, such as localized infrastructure deficiencies. (DAlessio, Stolzenberg and Terry, Clinton, 1999).
The crumple zone is an essential part of any car that provides safety for the passengers during collusion with another car or object. Without any form of a crumple zone, passengers would be much more likely to suffer from injury or possibly death. For this same reason, crumple zones have existed in cars for years and are still being improved to this day. One way you can better understand a crumple zone is by creating a scale model. My group and I have made multiple crumple zones with trial and error to better understand them and how they work.
But there appears to be an escalating problem with SUVs. As Americans thirst for more of the power and comfort they provide, we are refraining from using proper caution while driving SUVs. These vehicles provide a false sense of security for drivers when faced by inclement driving situations. Because of the feature of four-wheel drive, drivers automatically assume safety. These vehicles are also very dangerous to the other vehicles on the road. By observing the trends and facts one will see that Sport Utility Vehicles are a major cause of the increasing danger on the roads today.
Jay Scott Traylor was driving on a highway in North Carolina when his car struck a guardrail that was fitted with an ET-Plus end terminal. The terminal, manufactured by Trinity Highway Products, LLC, comprised three main components—an impact plate, guide channels, and an extruder head. When attached to the end of a standard guardrail, the unit was designed to absorb and dissipate crash forces by permitting the guardrail to be extruded through the unit’s head and flattened out into a ribbon. . [Traylor v. Trinity Indus., Inc.]
It can also be hit by a car going in the opposite direction. The magnitude of this collision will be much greater because it involves objects going in opposing directions. This is why the worse rock chips are often from cars going in the opposite direction, and why it is possible to throw rocks at yourself, which often do not do any damage.
The Crash Based on the Ben Sherwood novel, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, is a story of two brothers who go against their mother’s word and decide to drive somewhere late one night while she is working, but they never make it to their destination. It all happens so fast as the scenes of the collision cut into different camera angles to build the intensity for the audience-flashes of light and the loud horns of the oncoming semi-truck build up the intensity of the accident. In slow motion, the light gets brighter until the screen is white. After witnessing the apparent collision, the scene suddenly goes black and slowly the camera starts to pan over the wet concrete to reveal the aftermath of what had happened. A rollover from Charlie
Now To talk about the forces that allow the car to move. There are two main aerodynamic forces acting on any object moving through the air. Lift is a force that acts 90° to the direction of travel of an object. Usually we think of lift when we think of an airplane. The plane travels forward (horizontally), and lift acts 90° to that motion of travel –
During side impact crashes, cars can potentially flip. Side impact crashes are said to be the most dangerous type of car crash. The rear facing seat is the best option during this type of crash. If the car flips the sides of the seats are better equipped to harness the child in the seat. The seat is able to make pivoting motions because of the attachments to keep the child in a straight line. Keeping them in a straight line reduces the risk of injuries especially in the spinal cord.By having their back straight it won't bend or come close to snapping. A rear facing car seat protects the child by using a 5- point safety harness which is a system of hooks even used for race car drivers, and flight pilots.This allows the child to stay In the seat without them fal...
While no one was technically injured or wounded, this incident tore through many of people’s cars, causing irreversible damage to both the cars and the payload. Inevitably, many factors were at a play in this error.
When it comes to cars, there are plenty of safety features incorporated by manufactures to ensure a smooth and safe ride. Some of these features seat belts, airbags, and antilock brakes. Nowadays, there have been great improvements to technology within cars to aid in the avoidance of collisions altogether. Examples of these technologies include blind spot detection, backup cameras, 360-degree cameras, and autonomous driving. Many of these newer safety features are there to avoid collisions. However, whenever a collision does occur, there is not much there to protect passengers in the rear of the car. Looking into this, there is evidence that shows that rear passengers do obtain injuries in collisions and pose the threat of contributing to others injuries. So, why are rear passenger airbags not standard in your vehicle?
Crashworthiness is the term used to measure a vehicle’s performance under impact conditions. A good design will be neither too strong (in which case the occupant would undergo very high acceleration) nor too weak (in which case the vehicle would absorb too little energy and not protect the occupant compartment from deformation). On the other hand, in term of mass, low mass is desirable for performance (acceleration and handling), fuel economy, and material
car accident."(Inc., PDE Publications, and Michael Pines. "For Device Driver Download and Updates Click Here." Driverscom RSS. PDE Publications, 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Dec.
...etty. The faster you go, the smoother it gets and the greater the force required to stop. Mass times velocity is not fun when applied to a crash. Mike Farrentino in an article in Bike magazine says, “The faster you go, the longer the crash, the greater the force of the impact. Seconds seem like hours, and the clatter and gasp and thud of cart wheeling bike and body parts is not a sound easily forgotten. …In spite of this, whatever any of us say, we all want to go fast….Momentum is the secret key to the universe. It is the rush of joy. It is the heavy hand of gravity. It is the grin of a child, feet off the pedals, bombing downhill on a tricycle.”
Crumple zones- are a structural feature used in automobiles. They help by absorbing the impact; this is by spreading the impact through parts of the car instead of in the one spot. This reflects back onto law number one, two and three. This is shown when the car hits the object it causes the car to slow down or completely stop (1). The crumble zone would protect the driver because all the energy has been diverted around the car, instead of the one spot. As a result of the cars mass and its acceleration, the force can be calculated (2). When the car crashes it’s most likely that the object w...