Abstract:

Vehicle OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) generally gain poor scores in the results of
three batch-tests released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for small overlap impact. A
mathematical model was built for the IIHS new small overlap crash test. An analysis from the mode reveals that
there are positive correlations between the lateral residual displacements and the lateral speeds, and between
the vertical collision loads and the vertical speeds, and then, the test phenomenon were reasonably explained. A
lateral displacement oriented strategy was established for light-mass design. The strategy is easy to implement
and verified by experiments. A structural assessment method was proposed for collision load combination
conditions to estimate the structure safety performances for developing vehicles. Therefore, a "safety cage"
is not a necessary condition to deal the IIHS new small overlap crash tests, their response difficulties are
overestimated, and it will be not durable to distinguish passive safety design.

Key words: vehicle safety, small overlap impact, mathematical model, light-mass design, displacement
oriented strategy, structural assessment method, safety cage