Ankit Saminar
Ankit Saminar
ON
“OVERVIEW OF STEALTH TECHNOLOGY”
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Submitted by
ANKIT PAL 0051480822
This is to certify Mr/Ms ANKIT PAL with University Enrolment No 0051480822, VII
semester B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering has presented the seminar titled
“EVOLUTION OF AUTOMOBILE SAFETY SYSTEM” in the presence of the seminar
evaluation panel for the partial fulfilment of the award of B.Tech. Degree under GGSIPU,
Delhi, for the academic year 2022-23
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to all those who have contributed to the
successful completion of my seminar on Overview of Stealth Technology. This training has been an
enriching and invaluable experience for me.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my Head of the Department, Dr. Vaibhav Jain
for his constant support and guidance throughout this seminar period. His expertise in the field of
mechanical engineering has been instrumental in shaping my understanding and encouraging me to
explore new horizons.
I am immensely grateful to Mr. Deshdeep Gambhir, Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering
Department, for his excellent mentorship and unwavering support during this seminar. Their expertise in
Stealth Technology and their willingness to share their knowledge have been truly commendable. I am
indebted to them for their valuable insights and guidance, which have been pivotal in enhancing my skills
and understanding of the subject.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to all my classmates who have been an integral part of this seminar
journey. Their willingness to collaborate, share ideas, and offer assistance whenever needed has been truly
remarkable. Their support and camaraderie have made the learning process enjoyable and memorable.
Lastly, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends for their constant encouragement,
understanding, and motivation throughout this seminar. Their unwavering support has been the driving
force behind my success.
In conclusion, I am immensely grateful to all the individuals mentioned above and many others who have
contributed directly or indirectly to my seminar on Overview of Stealth Technology. Their guidance,
support, and encouragement have been invaluable, and I am truly fortunate to have had the opportunity to
learn from such remarkable individuals.
Thank you all.
Yours sincerely,
ANKIT PAL
0051480822
UNIT I
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION:
Automobile safety is the study and practice of design cars, construction, equipment
and regulation to minimize the occurrence and consequences of traffic collisions.
CRASHWORTHINESS:
Crashworthiness is also highly dependent on how the materials, construction and design of the vehicle
work together. From a collision point of view, a vehicle can be considered as two primary kinds of structure.
First, there is the passenger cabin, within which the occupants should be belted to the seating. This
compartment should represent a ‘safety cage’. Ideally this cage will not distort or deform. Trapping feet with
a collapsing firewall or having the roof structure deform onto heads is extremely poor from an injury point of
view. Very strong passenger compartments are essential for these safety cages. The present material of choice
for primary structural pillars is boron-containing hot stamped steels, which have very high strength and are
easily manufacturable. The other important element is the crush zone that surrounds the cabin. This zone is
tuned to absorb energy and provide deformation. Crash performance is improved by controlling the
acceleration of an occupant’s chest and minimizing a head injury criterion, which is also related to peak rates
of acceleration or G-loading. Vehicle safety standards are based on these measures. To receive a 5-star crash
rating, a passenger’s chest should receive fewer than 48 Gs of acceleration when a vehicle impacts with a
fixed rigid barrier. Therefore, from a design point of view, the crush zone should crush from its original shape
to nearly zero thickness in front of the cabin compartment, ideally with a nearly constant force that is no
greater than 48 times the vehicle weight while the safety cage remains undeformed. For the deforming
members, high strength or stiffness is not desired, but what is important is the ability to absorb energy in a
controlled manner and the ability to crush the full distance from the bumper to cabin, while the force remain
near the peak value it maximizes the energy absorbed. Governmental regulation impose strict standards on
occupant protection, and on various crash modes including side impact and roof crush. The mass of vehicles
could be dramatically reduced if crashworthiness were not a consideration.
TYPES OF IMPACTS IN CAR ACCIDENTS:
Design techniques/strategies:
The following design techniques/strategies are to be followed while designing a car
body (especially front structure) to reduce the impact of crash and increase the safety of
the car and passengers.
ENERGY EQUATION
The application of the conservation of energy principle provides a powerful tool for
problem solving.
Newton's laws are used for the solution of many standard problems, but often there
are methods using energy which are more straightforward.
The basic reason for the advantage of the energy approach is that just the beginning
and ending energies need be considered; intermediate processes do not need to be
examined in detail since conservation of energy guarantees that the final energy of the system is
the same as the initial energy.
The work-energy principle is also a useful approach to the use of conservation of
energy in mechanics problem solving. It is particularly useful in cases where an
object is brought to rest as in a car crash or the normal stopping of an automobile.
Kinetic energy is energy of motion. Objects that are moving, have kinetic energy
(KE). If a car crashes into a wall at 5 mph, it shouldn't do much damage to the car.
But if it hits the wall at 40 mph, the car will most likely be totaled. Kinetic energy is
similar to potential energy. The more the object weighs, and the faster it is moving,
the more kinetic energy it has. The formula for KE is: KE = 1/2*m*v2 where m is
the mass and v is the velocity.
The kinetic energy increases with the velocity squared. This means that if a car is
going twice as fast, it has four times the energy. It may be noticed that the car
accelerates much faster from 0 mph to 20 mph than it does from 40 mph to 60 mph.
Let's compare how much kinetic energy is required at each of these speeds. At first
glance, you might say that in each case, the car is increasing its speed by 20 mph,
and so the energy required for each increase must be the same. But this is not so. We
can calculate the kinetic energy required to go from 0 mph to 20 mph by calculating
the KE at 20 mph and then subtracting the KE at 0 mph from that number. In this
case, it would be 1/2*m*202 - 1/2*m*02. Because the second part of the equation is
0, the KE = 1/2*m*202, or 200 m. For the car going from 40 mph to 60 mph, the KE
= 1/2*m*602 - 1/2*m*402; so KE = 1,800 m - 800 m, or 1000 m. Comparing the
two results, we can see that it takes a KE of 1,000 m to go from 40 mph to 60 mph,
whereas it only takes 200 m to go from 0 mph to 20 mph.
There are a lot of other factors involved in determining a car's acceleration, such as
aerodynamic drag, which also increases with the velocity squared. Gear ratios
determine how much of the engine's power is available at a particular speed, and
traction is sometimes a limiting factor. So it's a lot more complicated than just doing
a kinetic energy calculation, but that calculation does help to explain the difference
in acceleration times.
ENGINE LOCATION
Front engine:
The large mass of an engine at the front of the car gives the driver protection in the
event of a head on collision.
Engine cooling is simpler to arrange and in addition the cornering ability of a vehicle
is normally better if the weight is concentrated at the front.
Advantages:
Better axle load
distribution
Better road grip
Comfort riding
Better cooling
Less noise (long exhaust
pipe)
Rear engine:
It increases the load on the rear driving wheels, giving them better grip of the road.
Most rear-engine layouts have been confined to comparatively small cars, because
the heavy engine at the rear has an adverse effect on the ‘handling’ of the car by
making it ‘tail- heavy’.
Also it takes up good deal of space that would be used on a front-engine car for
carrying luggage.
Most of the space vacated by the engine at the front end can be used for luggage, but
this space is usually less than that available at the rear.
Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 15 mph speed testing condition).
20 mph test:
In the 20 mph test, the body deformation is more than 15 mph test. Moreover, the
acceleration has reduced to a further lower value (up to 35 g) in the negative direction. In
this case the maximum deceleration is obtained in 50 milli seconds whereas for 10 mph test
it was 35 milli seconds. The rebound velocity for this case is1.7 mph whereas for 10 mph it
is 1.3 mph.40 mph test: In the 40 mph test, we can see that the acceleration curve goes
down (deceleration) then suddenly goes up in the positive region (acceleration). This is due
to the fact that, at 40 mph, the deformation is more and the accelerometer (sensor)
mounting area has buckled and resulted in an increase in acceleration value. The body
deformation is also high such that the accelerometer mounting area is also damaged. So, we
have to carefully analyze the graph to study the situation.
Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 20 mph speed testing condition).
40 mph test:
In the 40 mph test, we can see that the acceleration curve goes down (deceleration) then
suddenly goes up in the positive region (acceleration). This is due to the fact that, at 40
mph, the deformation is more and the accelerometer (sensor) mounting area has buckled
and resulted in an increase in acceleration value. The body deformation is also high such
that the accelerometer mounting area is also damaged. So, we have to carefully analyze the
graph to study the situation.
Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 40 mph speed testing condition).
50 mph test:
The body deformation is very high as the speed is more. The acceleration curve shows that
the maximum deceleration is around 35g and happens in time duration of 45 milli seconds.
The rebound velocity is 1.6 mph.
Figure 1.7. Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with stationary object (at 50 mph speed testing condition).
A movable obstacle can be another car or any other vehicle. Let us consider a car is
impacting with another car. We shall study for the two cars; one car which is impacting the
second car, the other car is which is being impacted. In this case the test is conducted at 40
mph.
Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with movable object (at 40 mph speed testing condition).
The impact velocity was 40.6 mph with a separation velocity of 18.0 mph for a total
velocity change of 22.6 mph. A maximum of 15g’s deceleration was achieved at about 50
milliseconds. The total impact duration was approximately 195 milliseconds Impacted
vehicle:
Deceleration characteristics in car after impact with movable object (at 18 mph speed testing condition).
The pre-impact velocity was 0.0 mph with a separation velocity of 22.8 for a total velocity
change of 22.8mph. A maximum of 16.5g’s acceleration was achieved at about 15
milliseconds. The total impact duration was approximately 195 milliseconds.
Crumple zones are designed to absorb the energy from the impact during a traffic
collision by controlled deformation.
The crumple zone of an automobile is a structural feature designed to compress
during an accident to absorb energy from the impact. Typically, crumple zones are
located in the front part of the vehicle, in order to absorb the impact of a head-on
collision, though they may be found on other parts of the vehicle as well. Some
racing cars use aluminum or composite honeycomb to form an 'impact attenuator' for
this purpose.
It was an inventor Bela Barenyi who pioneered the idea that passengers were safer in
a vehicle that was designed to easily absorb the energy from an impact and keep that
energy away from the people inside the cabin. Barenyi devised a system of placing
the car's components in a certain configuration that kept the kinetic energy in the
event of a crash away from a bubble protecting the car's occupants.
Mercedes obtained patent from Barenyi's invention way back in 1952 and the
technology was first introduced into production cars in 1959 in the Mercedes-Benz
220, 220 S and 220 SE models.
Auto safety has come a long way in the last few decades, and one of the most effective
innovations is the crumple zone. Also known as a crush zone, crumple zones are areas of a
vehicle that are designed to deform and crumple in a collision. This absorbs some of the
energy of the impact, preventing it from being transmitted to the occupants.
Of course, keeping people safe in auto accidents isn't as simple as making the whole vehicle
crumple. Engineers have to consider many factors in designing safer cars, including vehicle
size and weight, frame stiffness and the stresses the car is likely to be subjected to in a crash.
For example, race cars experience far more severe impacts than street cars, and SUVs often
crash with more force than small cars.
Function:
Crumple zones work by managing crash energy, absorbing it within the outer
sections of the vehicle, rather than being directly transmitted to the occupants, while
also preventing intrusion into or deformation of the passenger cabin.
This better protects car occupants against injury. This is achieved by controlled
weakening of sacrificial outer parts of the car, while strengthening and increasing the
rigidity of the inner part of the body of the car, making the passenger cabin into a
'safety cell', by using more reinforcing beam sand higher strength steels. Volvo introduced the side
crumple zone; with the introduction of the SIPS (Side Impact Protection System) in the early
1990s.
The purpose of crumple zones is to slow down the collision and to absorb energy. It
is like the difference between slamming someone into a wall headfirst (fracturing
their skull) and shoulder-first (bruising their flesh slightly) is that the arm, being
softer, has tens of times longer to slow its speed, yielding a little at a time, than the
hard skull, which isn't in contact with the wall until it has to deal with extremely high
pressures.
Seatbelts restrain the passenger so they don't fly through the windshield, and are in
the correct position for the airbag and also spread the loading of impact on the body.
Seat belts also absorb energy by being designed to stretch during an impact, so that
there is less speed differential between the passenger's body and their vehicle
interior. In short: A passenger whose body is decelerated more slowly due to the
crumple zone (and other devices) over a longer time, survives much more often than
a passenger whose body indirectly impacts a hard, undamaged metal car body which
has come to a halt nearly instantaneously.
The final impact after a passenger's body hits the car interior, airbag or seat belts, is
that of the internal organs hitting the ribcage or skull. The force of this impact is the
mechanism through which car crashes cause disabling or life threatening injury. The
sequence of energy is dissipating and speed reducing technologies - crumple zone -
seat belt - airbags - padded interior, are designed to work together as system, to
reduce the force of this final impact.
A common misconception about crumple zones is that they reduce safety by allowing
the vehicle's body to collapse, crushing the occupants. In fact, crumple zones are
typically located in front and behind of the main body (though side impact
absorption systems are starting to be introduced), of the car (which forms a rigid
'safety cell'), compacting within the space of the engine compartment or boot/trunk.
The marked improvement over the past two decades in high speed crash test results
and real-life accidents also belies any such fears.
Modern vehicles using what are commonly termed 'crumple zones' provide far
superior protection for their occupants in severe tests than older models, or SUVs
that use a separate chassis frame and have no crumple zones.
For additional strength, reinforcing material can be added at the skin joints. It is
emphasized at this point that the process of shaping a panel requires no tooling, and
assembly can often be arranged so that parts are self-jigging.
The panels can be machined with hand tools a major attraction of these techniques is
the potential they offer for computer control and automation.
ACTIVE SAFETY:
• Active safety systems help prevent accidents and thus make a preventive contribution to safety in
road traffic.
• Active safety systems are designed to help you avoid a crash in the first place.
• One example of an active driving safety system is the Antilock Braking System (ABS) with
Electronic Stability Program (ESP) from Bosch, which stabilizes the vehicle even in critical
braking situations and maintains steerability in the process.
Driving safety
• It is the result of a harmonious chassis and suspension design with regard to wheel suspension,
springing, steering and braking, and is reflected in optimum dynamic vehicle behavior.
Conditional safety
• It results from keeping the physiological stress that the vehicle occupants are
subjected to by vibration, noise, and climatic conditions down to as low a level as
possible. It is a significant factor in reducing the possibility of miss actions in traffic.
• Vibrations within a frequency range of 1 to 25 Hz (stuttering, shaking, etc.) induced
by wheels and drive components reach the occupants of the vehicle via the body,
seats and steering wheel. The effect of these vibrations is more or less pronounced,
depending upon their direction, amplitude and duration.
• Noises as acoustical disturbances in and around the vehicle can come from internal
sources (engine, transmission, prop shafts, axles) or external sources (tire/road
noises, wind noises), and are transmitted through the air or the vehicle body.
• The sound pressure level is measured in dB(A) (see Motor-vehicle noise
measurements and limits).Noise reduction measures are concerned on the one hand
with the development of quiet- running components and the insulation of noise
sources (e.g., engine encapsulation), and on the other hand with noise damping by
means of insulating or anti-noise materials.
• Climatic conditions inside the vehicle are primarily influenced by air temperature, air
humidity, rate of airflow through the passenger compartment and air pressure (see
Environmental stresses for additional information).
Perceptibility safety
• Measures which increase perceptibility safety are concentrated
• Lighting equipment (see Lighting),
• Acoustic warning devices (see Acoustic signaling devices),
• Direct and indirect view (see Main dimensions) (Driver's view: The angle of
obscuration caused by the A-pillars for both of the driver's eyes binocular must not
be more than 6 degrees).
Active Safety Systems.
Active Safety Features:
Active safety features are designed to keep in full control of the vehicle at all times using
advanced technologies. These technologies attempt to avoid accidents in the first place, and
they are always on, alerting commuters. Thus, these safety features are always “active.”
Here are some of the features they include:
Active Brakes – These brakes help make driving easier in a number of different ways by
applying added braking pressure when emergency braking, automatically drying themselves
when it’s wet, and decreasing erratic driving.
Dynamic Stability Control – Using advanced sensors and the strategic delivery of torque and
brake pressure to the wheels, this system is able to help you stay stable on the road.
Head-Up Display – Keep your eyes on the road to avoid a collision while still getting access to
important information like your speed, navigation directions, and radio.
Cornering Brake Control – When you’re taking a corner at speed, this system applies the
brakes automatically to help you stay in control.
Adaptive Cruise Control – This feature is able to automatically maintain a safe distance
between your car and the one in front of you.
PASSIVE SAFETY:
• A passive safety system helps to protect from injury if a crash is unavoidable.It refersto
components of the vehicle (primarily airbags, seatbelts and the physical structure of the vehicle)
that help to protect occupants during a crash
• Passive safety systems serve to protect the occupants against serious or even fatalinjuries.
• An example of passive safety is the airbags, which protect the occupantsfollowing an unavoidable
impact.
Exterior safety
The term "exterior safety" covers all vehicle-related measures which are designed to minimize the
severity of injury to pedestrians and bicycle and motorcycle riders struck by the vehicle in an accident.
Those factors which determine exterior safety are: Vehicle-body deformation behavior, Exterior
vehicle body shape.
The primary objective is to design the vehicle such that its exterior design minimizes the consequences
of a primary collision (a collision involving persons outside the vehicle and the vehicle itself).The most
severe injuries are sustained by passengers who are hit by the front of the vehicle, whereby the course of
the accident greatly depends upon body size. The consequences of collisions involving two-wheeled
vehicles and passenger cars can only be slightly ameliorated by passenger-car design due to the two-
wheeled vehicle's often considerable inherent energy component, its high seat position and the wide
dispersion of contact points. Those design features which can be incorporated into the passenger car are,
for example:
• Movable front lamps
• Recessed windshields wipers, Recessed drip rails,
• Recessed door handles.
Interior safety
The term "interior safety" covers vehicle measures whose purpose is to minimize the accelerations and
forces acting on the vehicle occupants in the event of an accident, to provide sufficient survival space, and
to ensure the operability of those vehicle components critical to the removal of passengers from the vehicle
after the accident has occurred. The determining factors for passenger safety are:
• Deformation behavior (vehicle body),
• Passenger-compartment strength, size of the survival space during and after impact, Restraint
systems,
• Impact areas (vehicle interior),
• Steering system,
• Occupant extrication,
• Fire protection.
Rating-Tests:
• New-Car Assessment Program (NCAP, USA, Europe, Japan, Australia), IIHS (USA,
insurance test),
• ADAC, ams, AUTO-BILD.
SEAT BELT
• A seat belt, sometimes called a safety belt, is a safety harness designed to secure the
occupant of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result from a collision or a
sudden stop.
• As part of an overall automobile passive safety system, seat belts are intended to
reduce injuries by stopping the wearer from hitting hard interior elements of the
vehicle, or other passengers (the so-called second impact), are in the correct position
for the airbag to deploy and prevent the passenger from being thrown from the
vehicle.
• Seat belts also absorb energy by being designed to stretch during an impact, so that
there is less speed differential between the passenger's body and their vehicle
interior, and also to spread the loading of impact on the passengers’ body.
• The final, so-called 'third impact' after a passenger's body hits the car interior, airbag
or seat belts, is that of the internal organs hitting the ribcage or skull.
• The force of this impact is the mechanism through which car crashes cause disabling
or life threatening injury.
Th
ree points seat belt.
• The sequence of energy dissipating and speed reducing technologies - crumple zone -
seat belt - airbags - padded interior, are designed to work together as system, to
reduce the force of this final impact
Types of seat belts
• Lap seat belt
• Three points
seatbelt Lap:
• Adjustable strap that goes over the waist. Used frequently in older cars, now
uncommon except in some rear middle seats. Passenger’s aircraft seats also use lap
seat belts to prevent injuries. Sash:
• Adjustable strap that goes over the shoulder. Used mainly in the 1960s, but of limited
benefit because it is very easy to slip out of in a collision. Three-point:
• Similar to the lap and shoulder, but one single continuous length of webbing. Both
threepoint and lap-and-sash belts help spread out the energy of the moving body in a
collision over the chest, pelvis, and shoulders. Volvo introduced the first production
three-point belt in 1959. The first car with three point belt was a Volvo PV 544 that
was delivered to a dealer in Kristian stad on August 13, 1959. The three point belt
was developed by Nils Bohlin who earlier had worked on ejection seats at Saab.
Until the 1980s, three-point belts were commonly available only in the front seats of
cars; the back seats had only lap belts or diagonal belts. Evidence of the potential for
lap belts to cause separation of the lumbar vertebrae and the sometimes associated
paralysis, or "seat belt syndrome", has led to a revision of passenger safety
regulations in nearly all developed countries requiring that all seats in a vehicle be
equipped with three-point belts. Since September 1, 2007, all new cars sold in the
U.S. require a lap and shoulder belt in the center rear.
Figure 3.3. Occupant protection systems with belt tighteners and front airbags
FUNCTION:
The function of seat belts is to restrain the occupants of a vehicle in their seats when
the vehicle hits an obstacle.
Seat-belt tighteners improve the restraining characteristics of a three-point inertia-
reel belt and increase the protection against injury.
In the event of a frontal impact, they pull the seat belts tighter against the body and
thus hold the upper body as closely as possible against the seat backrest.
This prevents excessive forward displacement of the occupants caused by mass
inertia.
Operating concept:
• In a frontal impact with a solid obstacle at a speed of 50 km/h, the seat belts must
absorb a level of energy comparable to the kinetic energy of a person in free fall
from the 4th floor of a building. Because of the belt slack, the belt stretch and the
delayed effect of the belt retractor ("film-reel effect"),three-point inertia-reel belts
provide only limited protection in frontal impacts with solid obstacles at speeds of
over 40 km/h because they can no longer safely prevent the head and body from
impacting against the steering wheel or the instrument panel. An occupant
experiences extensive forward displacement without restraint systems.
• Deceleration to standstill and forward displacement of an occupant at an impact
speed of 50 km/h.1 Impact, 2 Firing of belt tightener/airbag, 3 Belt tightened, 4
Airbag inflated. without/ with restraint systems. In an impact, the shoulder belt
tightener compensates for the belt slack and the "film-reel effect" by retracting and
tightening the belt strap.
• At an impact speed of 50 km/h, this system achieves its full effect within the first 20
ms of the impact; and thus supports the airbag which needs approx. 40 ms to inflate
completely. The occupant continues to move forward slightly until making contact
with the deflating airbag and in this manner is protected from injury.
A prerequisite for optimum protection is that the occupants' forward movement
away from their seats remains minimal as they decelerate along with the vehicle.
This is achieved by triggering the belt tighteners immediately upon initial impact to
ensure that safe restraint of the occupants in the front seats starts as soon as possible.
The maximum forward displacement with tightened seat belts is approx. 1 cm and
the duration of mechanical tightening is 5...10 ms. On activation, a pyrotechnical
propellant charge is electrically fired. The explosive pressure acts on a piston, which
turns the belt reel via a steel cable in such a way that the belt rests tightly against the
body.
Shoulder-belt tightener
1.Ignition cable, 2 Firing elements, 3 Propellant charge, 4 Piston, 5 Cylinder, 6 Metal cables, 7 Belt reel, 8 Belt
strap.
Front airbag
Function:
The function of front airbags is to protect the driver and the front passenger against
head and chest injuries in a vehicle impact with a solid obstacle at speeds of up to 60
km/h.
In a frontal impact between two vehicles, the front airbags afford protection at
relative speeds of up to 100 km/h. A belt tightener alone cannot prevent the head
from hitting the steering wheel in response to severe impact. In order to fulfill this
function, depending on the installation location, vehicle type and structure-
deformation response, airbag shave different filling capacities and pressure build-up
sequences adapted to the specific vehicle conditions.
In a few vehicle types, front airbags also operate in conjunction with "inflatable
knee pads", which safeguard the "ride down benefit", i.e. the speed decrease of the
occupants together with the speed decrease of the passenger cell.
This ensures the rotational forward motion of the upper body and head which is
actually needed for optimal airbag protection, and is of particular benefit in countries
where seat- belt usage is not mandatory.
Figure 3.7. Construction and working of airbag.
Operating concept:
To protect driver and front passenger, pyrotechnical gas inflators inflate the driver
and passenger airbags in pyrotechnical, highly dynamic fashion after a vehicle
impact detected by sensors.
In order for the affected occupant to enjoy maximum protection, the airbag must be
fully inflated before the occupant comes into contact with it.
The airbag then responds to upper-body contact with partial deflation in a response
pattern calculated to combine "gentle" impact-energy absorption with non-critical (in
terms of injury) surface pressures and decelerative forces for the occupant. This
concept significantly reduces or even prevents head and chest injuries.
The maximum permissible forward displacement before the driver's airbag is fully
inflated is approx.12.5 cm, corresponding to a period of approx. 10 ms + 30 ms = 40
ms after the initial impact (at 50 km/h with a solid obstacle) (see Fig. "Deceleration
to standstill"). It needs 10 ms for electronic firing to take place and 30ms for the
airbag to inflate.
In a 50 km/h crash, the airbag takes approx. 40 ms to inflate fully and a further
80...100 ms to deflate through the deflation holes. The entire process thus takes little
more than a tenth of a second, i.e. the batting of an eyelid.
Impact detection:
• Optimal occupant protection against the effects of frontal, offset, oblique or pole
impact is obtained through the precisely coordinated interplay of electrically fired
pyrotechnical front airbags and seat-belt tighteners.
• To maximize the effect of both protective devices, they are activated with optimized
time response by a common ECU (triggering unit) installed in the passenger cell. The
ECU's deceleration calculations are based on data from one or two electronic
acceleration sensors used to monitor the decelerative forces that accompany an
impact. The impact must also be analyzed. A hammer blow in the workshop, gentle
pushing, driving over a curbstone or a pothole should not trigger the airbag. With this
end in mind, the sensor signals are processed in digital analysis algorithms whose
sensitivity parameters have been optimized with the aid of crash-data simulations.
• Depending on the impact type, the first trigger threshold is reached within 5...60 ms.
the acceleration characteristics, which are influenced for instance by the vehicle
equipment and the body's deformation performance, are different for each vehicle.
They determine the setting parameters which are of crucial importance for the
sensitivity in the analysis algorithm (computing process) and, in the end, for airbag
and belt-tightener firing.
• Depending on the vehicle-manufacturer's production concept, the trigger parameters
and the extent of vehicle equipment can also be programmed into the ECU at the end
of the assembly line ("end-of-line programming" or "EoL programming").In order to
prevent injuries caused by airbags or fatalities to "out-of-position" occupants or to
small children in Re board child seats, it is essential that the front airbags are
triggered and inflated in accordance with the particular situations.
• The following improvement measures are available for this purpose 1. Deactivation
switches. These switches can be used to deactivate the driver or passenger airbag.
The airbag function states are indicated by special lamps.2. In the USA, where there
have been approx. 130 fatalities caused by airbags, attempts are being made to
reduce aggressive inflation by introducing "depowered airbags".
• These are airbags whose gas-inflator power has been reduced by 20...30 %, which
itself reduces the inflation speed, the inflation severity and the risk of injury to "out-
ofposition" occupants. "Depowered airbags" can thus be depressed more easily by
large and heavy occupants, i.e. they have a reduced energy-absorption capacity. It is
therefore essential above all with regard to the possibility of severe frontal impacts
for the occupants to fasten their seatbelts.3. "Intelligent airbag systems".
• The introduction of improved sensing functions and control options for the airbag
inflation process, with the accompanying improvement of the protective effect, is
intended to result in a step-by-step reduction in the risk of injury.
Acceleration sensors:
• Acceleration sensors for impact detection are integrated directly in the ECU (belt
tightener, front airbag)and mounted at selected points on the left and right body sides
(side airbag) or in the vehicle's front-end deformation area (upfront sensors for
"intelligent airbag systems").
• The precision of these sensors is crucial in saving lives. They are generally surface-
micromechanical sensors consisting of fixed and moving finger structures and spring
pins. A special process is used to incorporate the "spring/mass system" on the surface
of a silicon wafer.
• Since the sensors only have low working capacitance (≈1 pF), it is necessary to
accommodate the evaluation electronics in the same housing so as to avoid
straycapacitance and other forms of interference.
Gas inflators:
The pyrotechnical propellant charges of the gas inflators for generating the airbag
inflation gas (mainly nitrogen) and for actuating belt tighteners are activated by an
electrically operated firing element.
The gas inflator in question inflates the airbag with nitrogen. The driver's airbag
integrated in the steering-wheel hub (volume 35...67 l) or the passenger airbag
installed in the glove box (70...150 l) is inflated approx. 30 ms after firing.
Figure 3.8. Combined ECU for belt tighteners and front/side airbags
.
Bumper evaluation tests in accordance with US Part 581 (4 km/h barrier collision, 4
km/h pendulum tests) must be passed by a bumper system whose energy absorber is
of the no- damage absorber type.
The requirements of the ECE standard are satisfied by plastically deformable
retaining elements located between the bumper and the vehicle body structure. In
addition to sheet steel, many bumpers are manufactured using fiber-reinforced
plastics and aluminum sections
Figure 3.10. Cross sectional view of bumpers 1. Shock-absorber system, 2 Energy-absorbing PUR-foam
systems
• Collision Warning
The Collision Warning (CW) function is targeting to avoid or mitigate
collisions by means of warning the driver ahead of a possible collision.
The system requires high usability, low number of nuisance alarms and an
efficient Human Machine Interface (HMI).
The Collision Warning system should provide a relative late warning in order
to reduce nuisance alarms and to reduce the possible misuse where an early
warning system may build a trust that is falsely interpreted by the driver to
allow for execution of non-driving tasks. The activation of the Collision
Warning will therefore approximately occur when the driving situation is
considered to be unpleasant.
However, it shall allow the driver to brake to avoid or mitigate an accident
provided the following distance was initially longer than the warning distance.
Functions:
Threat Assessment
The aim of the threat assessment is to understand if the information
from the forward sensing system shows that there is a risk for collision
The first step is to approve a lead vehicle as staying in the forward path
within a given time to collision utilizing intra-vehicle and yaw-rate
information.
Given an approved lead vehicle a second step calculates a total warning
distance, i.e. the predicted distance required for avoiding a collision.
The total warning distance base calculation is derived from a sum of
three distinct distance calculations.
The first is the driver reaction distance which is obtained from the
predicted driver reaction time multiplied by vehicle speed.
The second is the system reaction distance which is obtained from the
system reaction time multiplied by vehicle speed.
The third is the braking distance to avoid impact using the current
physical states of the lead vehicle and the host vehicle using the
constant acceleration model for the behavior of the host and the target
vehicle closely mimicking the CAMP late warning algorithm.
The sum of above provides a total warning distance.
If the distance to the forward vehicle becomes lower than the total
warning distance a warning is to be issued.
Auto Brake
It is beneficial to the driver to get support in the upcoming collision
event. This can be achieved by reducing the collision energy by
optimizing driver initiated braking or through automatically putting on
the brakes prior to the collision event.
When providing autonomous interventions that override or complement
the driver’s actions, one has to ensure that customer satisfaction is not
negatively affected by false interventions.
Customer acceptance is crucial in order to increase take rates and thus
to increase the overall real- life safety benefit of the system. It is
therefore necessary to implement a decision making strategy that
reduces the amount of false interventions while not missing collision
events where the driver needs support. Therefore, an intervention
decision should be based on two main information categories: traffic
situation data and driver actions. The traffic situation data is used to
quantify the risk for a collision event, in other words a threat
assessment is performed.
This assessment will never be perfect as sensor information is usually a
subset of the totally available information and mostly affected by
latencies. So, a collision may appear to be unavoidable but is in reality
avoidable. Hence, a driver that takes distinct steering and/or braking
action is judged to be in control of the situation and should be trusted.
The driver override function is to detect these distinct driver actions.
As soon as the support system has performed the threat assessment and
driver override detection, the outcome can be weighted by the brake
intervention strategy and a decision on an autonomous brake
intervention can be taken
Functions of collision warning: System
functionality:
• Alerting the driver
• Braking control
• Restricted steering Driver functionality:
• Changing lanes
• Turning the system on and off
• Approaching another vehicle or Non vehicle obstacle
SYSTEM OVERVIEW
The Sensor system has two cameras that can detect vehicles in the medium and far range are installed by
the side of a rear-view mirror and at the ceiling above the back seat and the two sonar sensors that can
measure the distance in the near range are installed at the front and rear bumpers.
Because the environment of the vehicle changes relatively fast as the speed ofa ego-vehicle is high, we
acquire 2 images of 1 field with 640×240 for avoiding the motion flow and use 320×240 image by sub-
sampling and acquire 2 signals of sonar sensors successively.
Determination Of The Day And Night Times
The environment of a moving vehicle greatly varies, it is difficult to detect vehicles
using a single feature or pre-established vehicle templates.
Various features or templates can be used for various environments, and by
applying the appropriate algorithm to the current environment the day or night time
can be determined.
Vehicle Detection in the Day Time
The detection system in the day time consists of 4 parts, the preprocessing module
working on the input raw image, the vehicle candidate extraction module by a
shadow region and a template, the validation module by a prior knowledge, and
the fusion module for fusing sonar and image data.
1) Preprocessing:
2) Vehicle Candidate Extraction:
3) Vehicle Candidate Validation
4) Vehicle Detection Using Sonar Sensors