Human Body Model and Passive Safety in Autonomous vehicles: Far Side Impact

Beginning in 1996 the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP), continuously evolved its test methodology to better reflect the European road environment and to better inform the customers on the safety of the vehicles they drive. To this end, a new assessment test was developed and introduced as part of the final vehicle safety rating in 2020 with the aim of evaluating the protection provided to the occupants positioned on the far-side of the vehicle respect to the impact location. The purpose of this thesis is to replicate the new assessment methodology by studying the behaviour of a detailed Human Body Model (HBM) positioned and belted inside a Finite Element (FE) model of a representative automobile. Starting from a full-scale vehicle model, a simplified system was developed. The model, consisting of the vehicle Body-In-White (BIW) and the interiors, represents a deceleration-based sled which reproduces the kinematic of the complete model following the rules laid down by the EuroNCAP protocol. The sled model has been validated by comparison with the complete system to verify that the modifications required would not significantly affect the behaviour. The results obtained, show a realistic behaviour of the sled model in representing its kinematics and the HBM motion. The methodology used in this work represents a powerful tool towards the prediction of possible injuries with the potential to be the ideal platform for evaluating far-side active safety devices.