Validation of Injury Reduction by Bumper Airbags for Heavy Truck Collisions

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This project strives ultimately to eliminate 90% of the 3,000 deaths and 34,000 injuries each year in the US from heavy truck and bus frontal collisions with cars, SUV's, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Livv on LLC is developing a bumper airbag system that could achieve this 90% reduction. Phase I of this project used non-linear, dynamic, finite element analysis and computational fluid mechanics to model the airbags in collisions and cross winds. The models we re used to explore improvements in the design and optimize it for reducing overall costs. The optimum design produced was large enough to reduce injuries and deaths by 99% each. In Phase ll, Livvon will build the airbag system and test it in the Transporta tion Research Center Proving Ground Collision Laboratory. The airbag will be mounted on a collision wall, and cars with crash dummies will be towed into it. The airbag will be mounted on an impact trolley and towed into crash dummy pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists. These results will verify the simulations and may lead to new improvements for further injury reduction. Several rounds of testing and improving are scheduled.