Experimental and analytic determining of changes in motor cars' positions in relation to each other during a crash test carried out to the FMVSS 214 procedure

The fundamentals of modelling the processes that take place between motor cars during their front-to-side collision have been analysed. This collision type predominates in the motor vehicle accidents occurring in the road traffic in Poland. The modelling of the kinematics of the vehicle contact phase and of the deformation processes that develop during vehicle collisions is based on findings from numerous tests, the results of which provide grounds for the construction of physical models and for the formulation of analytical descriptions of these phenomena of short duration. The analysis of changes in the angular positions and in the relative velocities of the vehicles during their right-angle collision was undertaken to determine the initial values necessary for the modelling of the post-impact phase of the vehicle motion (after the end of the vehicle contact phase). The analysis was based on results of special crash tests carried out to the FMVSS 214 procedure. The results of the calculations carried out were taken as a basis for the model of vehicles' kinematics during the phase of vehicle deformation growth. Models of the function approximating the histories of the yaw angles of both vehicles were defined and the values of the tangent component of the relative vehicle velocity in the central part of the vehicle deformation zone were calculated.