Written by / Zhu Lin
Edit/Windsor
Design / Shi Yuchao
Source/autocar, euroncap, by John Evans, Euroncap Staff
Why is automotive crash testing so necessary? Just look at the Rover 100 on display at Thatcham Research. For automotive crash test engineers, this car has an extraordinary significance.
In the 40 mph frontal bias crash test, its front end was smashed to pieces (and impacts on sides and pedestrians), but what was even more shocking was that the car's A-pillar had been bent, how did these impact energies get into the cabin? Inside the car, the occupants' living space has been severely reduced, and the steering wheel has been forced to the head of the driver dummy.
In March 1997, 25 years ago, Rover Motors was one of the first vehicles to undergo crash tests by the then European Union New Car Safety Assessment Association (Euro NCAP). In 2012, Thatcham Research became one of its accredited testing institutes.
The EU New Car Safety Assessment Association is now based in Belgium, but in fact it was originally conceived as an initiative by the Transport Research Laboratory in the UK. At the time, the British government quickly supported the new plan, and soon after, the European Union joined in.
To the concern of car owners, the European Union New Car Safety Appraisal Association only awarded the Rover 100 four stars (now the highest score is five stars). Even the Best Performing Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo in the first round of tests only received three stars.
The test results have sent shockwaves to the auto industry, which has become accustomed to crash testing their new cars only in accordance with basic legislative requirements, with results known only to them and withheld from customers.
The consequences are swift and dramatic. The European Union's New Car Safety Assessment Association was and is a voluntary program, but just five months later, the Volvo S40 became the first four-star car to protect occupants.
The beginning of rigorous testing
Encouraged by the reaction of manufacturers and consumers, in 2000 the European Union New Car Safety Evaluation Association launched one of the most stringent tests to date: the sidebar crash test, in which the car is mounted on a platform and pulled from the side to a pole.
Matthew Avery, research director at Thatcham, said: "It's the toughest crash test because the pole is like a knife. ”
In 2001, the Renault Laguna II was the first car to receive the EU's new highest five-star rating from the European Association for the Safety of New Cars, thanks to its impressively stable construction, preloaded seat belts and head airbags. This result has encouraged more automakers to raise their level.
In 2007, inspired by Volvo's occupant head and neck protection system introduced on the S80 in 1999, the European Union's New Car Safety Evaluation Association raised its test level and began using a sitting dummy mounted on a sled to test head and neck protection.
By 2009, the EU New Car Safety Assessment Association could claim that people riding five-star cars were hurting 65 percent less than cars made before the program was introduced.
Since 2009, we've gotten used to getting four or five stars in cars, but that's not to say that the road to success is all smooth. Just in 2021, the revamp Renault Zoe scored a shocking zero.
Explaining the results, the EU New Car Safety Review Association said: "The protection provided by the new Zoe in collisions is poor, the protection of vulnerable road users is also poor, and the lack of meaningful collision avoidance technology has made it disqualified from any star rating." ”
Normally, the EU New Car Safety Appraisal Association does not test a modified model like the current Zoe, partly because it is busy testing brand new models (about 35 per year), and partly because its test protocol is revised every two years and updated significantly every five years (the next update is 2025), so the comparison between the old and new models is not very useful. It made an exception because Renault said the Zoe was very different.
Testing development and breakthroughs
For years, the European Union's New Car Safety Review Association has crash-tested cars, crashing them into an biased, deformable barrier, a soft-headed structure that mimics the front of another car. In 2019, a movable version known as the Progressive Deformable Movable Barrier replaced it.
Both measure the "aggressiveness" of the test vehicle. Simply put, if the barrier deforms too badly after the impact, it indicates that the structure of the test vehicle is too hard, causing more collision energy to be transferred to other parts of the vehicle. Conversely, if the barrier leaves little trace, it means that the test car has absorbed too much energy.
"We encourage manufacturers to make large vehicles such as SUVs less rigid." Everrey said. In 2015, the previously withdrawn full-width rigid barrier crash test was reintroduced as a means of testing occupant loads.
If Thatcham's engineers are encouraged by seeing the deformed Rover 100, they should also be inspired by the Honda Jazz that ThatThcham tested in 2017 to keep up with the work.
Admittedly, the Front of the Honda was crushed, but that was because the impact absorption played a role. What's more, its A-pillar was unharmed, while the unfolded side airbags hung feebly on the roof.
"You can see that the angle of the steering wheel hasn't changed," Everrey said, "and most of the crash energy has been absorbed by the front of the car." Although this is a frontal bias crash test, not a side crash test, the side airbags are already open. This shows that removing the head airbag from the revamped Zoe was such a bad decision. ”
Thatcham's most recent major test update was 2020, which Everrey described as a "breakthrough year." "From the accident studies we did and data including RAIDS (Road Accident In-Depth Studies), we noticed more deaths and serious injuries on the non-hit side of the car. ”
"Usually, the reason for this kind of accident is the way the occupants interact with the driver. This prompted us to recognize the installation of central airbags in new cars. We will continue to demand higher levels of safety as our science and knowledge continue to grow and we know manufacturers can do more. "In this regard, in 2025, the EU New Car Safety Evaluation Association agreement may introduce a new autonomous driving assessment.
Continuous and reproducible results
Everrey and his engineers are acutely aware of their responsibility to produce results that are consistent and repeatable. Therefore, before and after the test, they make detailed measurements of the position of each vehicle and the dummy, which must be precisely installed.
Twice a year, all cars that are crash tested at the EU New Car Safety Assessment Association facility are sent to the headquarters in Brussels so that the car manufacturer can carefully inspect it.
"We encourage them to share their insights." "However, we do ask them not to bring tools," Ivory said. It is understood that some people take part of the car away for inspection. ”
As a result, the crashed car is never repaired and returned to the road (this happened, although not a car of the European New Car Safety Assessment Association), and all the wreckage is shattered after testing. For millions of drivers around the world, this sacrifice has not been in vain.
Car crash testing
The EU New Vehicle Safety Assessment Association tests and detects four key areas of vehicle safety: adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road user protection and safety assistance.
Frontal bias crash testing: This major test program of the European Union's New Car Safety Evaluation Association was designed for research from the 1960s, which found that most frontal collisions were partial rather than full-width collisions. As a result, only one side of the car absorbs all the impact energy, causing the energy to invade the cabin more and twist the occupant's body.
Hyper G: Pushing a test car mounted on a trolley into a crash barrier at a very short distance at speeds of up to 40 mph, this is The Hyper G of Thatcham Research, an aerodynamic impact device. Operating at a pressure of 120 bar, the striker only extends by 1.2 meters. At one end of it is a series of computer-controlled brakes that allow engineers to finely control the acceleration and deceleration of the impact bar to achieve continuous and repeatable results.
Proactive security testing
Passive safety is part of the test by Hatcham engineers, but the European Association for The Safety Evaluation of New Cars also requires an evaluation of the active safety system.
For this work, engineers travelled to the former RAF base in Upper Havford, Oxfordshire. It was here that Thatcham developed a test protocol for automotive-to-car automatic emergency braking.
Subsequently, it developed AEB protocols for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as lane support features. Matthew Everrey of Thatcham said: "If we knew the manufacturer had cracked a new security system, we would always push for its implementation. ”
In the AEB test, engineers remotely drove the vehicle under test to a remote-controlled scooter carrying GST (Global Soft Collision Target), an object assembled from segments of absorbent material that resembled a white Ford Fiesta.
For AEB tests for riders and pedestrians, a realistic form mounted on a small remote-controlled trolley was used. Next-generation tests will focus on systems that monitor the driver's open eyes, looking for signs of distraction.
See the dummy family
Thousands of motorists owe their lives to crash test dummies. Unfortunately, like other dummies from the EU New Car Safety Assessment Association testing agency, Most of thatcham is based on the 1950s form of the Hybrid 3.
Another problem is that their sensor capabilities haven't kept pace with crash tests. EuroSID 2 can measure lateral chest compression, but there is no ideal solution. Matthew Everrey said: "We don't yet have a dummy that can be used in all collision situations. ”
The new Thor-50M takes another step toward that goal, with Thatcham showcasing a dummy made by passive safety product manufacturer Cellbond. Claiming to be the most realistic dummy to date, the Thor-50M has been used for progressive deformable moving barrier testing. Multiple sensors enable it to measure trauma to soft tissues, abdomen, and pelvis, as well as damage to the brain, spine, and neck.
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