A 'pedestrian-friendly' car bonnet demonstration
11 April 2011
Impact absorption specialists Cellbond has teamed up with researchers at Anglia Ruskin University to develop and test a 'pedestrian-friendly' car bonnet design that could cut the number of fatalities and serious injuries caused by impact in car accidents.
Pedestrians account for 20% of all traffic fatalities in Europe and 14% in the United States - with the majority being caused by head impacts. Statistically, 65% of pedestrians impacting or rolling on the bonnet of car that is going above 40mph are killed or suffer from serious injury.
In such a crash the pedestrian is initially impacted by the car and then by the ground, and most fatalities and head injuries occur when there is insufficient clearance between the bonnet and stiff underlying engine components.
Now a 'pedestrian-friendly' car bonnet has been designed by Cellbond's Dr Mehrdad Asadi in research collaboration with Anglia Ruskin University's Engineering Simulation Analysis and Tribology (EAST) Group. The 'pedestrian-friendly' car bonnet design makes use of an aluminium mechanical energy absorber. This takes the form of a sheet of metal that is etched into a grid format; upon impact, it collapses inwards, absorbing the impact energy resulting in lower injury-causing reaction forces. Professor Shirvani summarises the project so far:
"During an impact the pedestrian exerts a dynamic force on the car bonnet. If the kinetic energy of the impact is not absorbed the bonnet will exert equal amount of the force that impacts it, causing injury to the body. The majority of car test standards and protocols use the 'Head Impact Criteria' to measure the severity of such impact on human heads and restrict the criterion to certain numbers. The Cellbond car bonnet design has been tested and verified in a EuroNCAP certified test house. Test results show that this Cellbond design reduces the Head Impact Criteria by 50-60%, hence the energy is absorbed in the collapsing structure."
The Cellbond car bonnet design is now being assessed by a number of leading automotive manufacturers and the research continues.
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