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Crumple zone design
Crumple zone design
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Crumple zones are one of the most useful parts of a vehicle. They were invented in 1952 by a Mercedes-Benz engineer Bela Barenyi. The first car that used this safety feature was the Mercedes W111 "Tail Fin" Saloon. This crumple zone was made by redesigning the longitudinal members, with the front lower railing being put in the center of the car to form a safe cage around the passenger side of the vehicle. As well as the front and rear supports being made curved, so that they could easily be distorted in an accident and that they would take some of the force off the passenger part of the car. With the country's annual deaths on the road increasing significantly by the year, things needed to be done to try to prevent accidents as much as possible. …show more content…
It is used to absorb as much impact as possible when there is a collision featuring the vehicle. It is the area in a car where the force and energy of a collision is absorbed and reduced, making sure that it does not reach the occupants that are in the vehicle.
How Crumple Zones Work
The crumple zone of a vehicle is specific to the manufacturer. Each manufacturer can have a different styled crumple zone, depending on the size and the weight of the vehicle. Simpler designs often use segments that are meant to be built to bend in certain places when there is an accident. More complex designs can use different types of metal, such as aluminium and steel, that have been carefully put together to absorb as much of the impact as possible.
There are two main focuses for crumple zones. The first focus being to reduce the initial force of the collision to be able to reduce the deceleration time. With that comes some objectives that the crumple zone will have to meet. Firstly, it will need to be able to distribute and decrease the initial force of a car crash before it reaches the occupants of the vehicle, and to also make sure that the force that is felt when the car the decelerating is not going to impact the passengers is not life
It can also be hit by a car going in the opposite direction. The magnitude of this collision will be much greater because it involves objects going in opposing directions. This is why the worse rock chips are often from cars going in the opposite direction, and why it is possible to throw rocks at yourself, which often do not do any damage.
Since the invention of the automobile, there have been many great innovations within the industry. The suspension of the automobile serves as a good example of one of those innovations. Could you imagine riding around in your brand new Nissan Skyline GT-R, with the same suspension methods used to stabilize old horse and carriage buggies centuries ago? That would not serve its purpose very well. Due to the demands of society, vehicle stabilization became a priority to increase safety. Throughout the years, there have been different variations of vehicle suspension systems. For example, we have adaptive air, solid axle, and dead axle suspensions. Without the advancements made in the way we travel and transport goods, civilization could not prosper the way it has.
The crumple zone is an essential part of any car that provides safety for the passengers during collusion with another car or object. Without any form of a crumple zone, passengers would be much more likely to suffer from injury or possibly death. For this same reason, crumple zones have existed in cars for years and are still being improved to this day. One way you can better understand a crumple zone is by creating a scale model. My group and I have made multiple crumple zones with trial and error to better understand them and how they work.
According to the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, "automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for those aged 3 to 33, with 43,005 (118 per day) Americans killed in 2002 alone" (Clayton, Helms, Simpson, 2006). Worldwide, vehicle accidents consist of 1.2 millions deaths per year, "behind only childhood infections and AIDS as cause of death amount people aged 5 to 30 years old" (Clayton., 2006). The annual cost of road accidents is estimated about $518 billion"(Factor, Yair, Mahalel, 2013). The fact alone of being in a moving, heavy vehicle is a danger in itself but individuals that do not wear their seat belts, talk on the phone, text, and do other distracting behavior also put themselves in even more harmful situations.
In 1966, the National Highway Safety Bureau (NHSB) was designed by the Highway Act. NHSB’s director, Dr. William Haddon, noticed that he could prevent motor-vehicle injuries by applying public health methods and epidemiology. Various passages demanded the government to set standards for the highway and motor vehicles. The federal government responded by developing new safety features in cars such as safety belts, head rests, and shatter-resistant windshields. Barriers, reflectors, and center line strips were placed on roadways to provide direction and illumination. Traffic safety laws, wearing a safety belt, and public education encouraged drivers to make safer decisions. The use of safety belts has skyrocketed from 11% in 1981 to 68% in 1997 and decreases When the community and government understood the necessity for motor-vehicle safety, various programs such as Prior to the implementation, the rate stood at 18 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1925; however, the rate stood at 1.7 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1997. With all of the new safety features with cars, public education and enforcement of safety laws, “motor-vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of injury-related deaths in the United States.” Over 23.9 million vehicle crashes were reported in 1997; estimated costs were around $200 billion.
The average driver doesn’t think about what keeps their car moving or what keeps them on the road, but that’s because they don’t have to. The average driver doesn’t have to worry about having enough downforce to keep them on the road or if they will reach the adhesive limit of their car’s tires around a turn. These are the things are the car designers, professional drivers, racing pit crews, serious sports car owners, and physicist think about. Physics are an important part of every sports and racing car design. The stylish curves and ground effects on sports cars are usually there not just for form but function as well allowing you to go speeds over 140 mph in most serious sports cars and remain on the road and in reasonable control.
ABS (Anti-lock Braking System) is a system which stops the wheels locking up into a skid when braking on slippery surfaces. It works by using a computer which monitors wheel speeds and drives pistons which alternatively increases and decrease brake pressure several time a second on individual wheels when it senses they are about to lock up.
This type of bumper is made of heavy gauge metal. It is designed to protect your vehicle from the elements it might encounter off
This helps make parking easier and helps avoid collisions with fixed objects while backing” (Nissan 9). This seems to be a useful technology not only for the inexperienced teenage driver, but also for the driver who is not so confident with backing up. Buying a Nissan car with said features would benefit not only the teenager who needs the technology to keep them safe, but benefits the parent who purchases the vehicle when they need the extra features to help them with driving.
Brakes may be one of the most essential inventions in the developments of automobiles. Clearly, nothing can surpass the breakthrough of the wheel, but the brake system was a catalyst to the further developments of cars. The brake system has also evolved greatly throughout the years. Once considered one of the simplest parts of a vehicle, brakes have become one of the most complicated components in a vehicle. The scientific explanation behind a brake system is very rudimentary. Friction permits the concept of braking to occur.
Shock absorbers, otherwise known as dampeners, reduce the vertical movement of the car as it drives down a rough surface. Without this piece of the suspension system, your car would rock and sway back and forth viciously. “It would be a traveling deathtrap. Or at least it would be a traveling deathtrap until the incessant vibration caused it to fall apart,” says Longhurst. Shock absorbers have two main functions. They both absorb any over-average bumps in the road, as I mentioned above, and secondly they keep your wheels on the ground as you drive. (Longhurst)
Nobody goes onto the roads with a hope to die, we all want to come home to your families. This will be if we drive safely. Safe driving should come from within us and it is very much possible to prevent the road crushes that are being reported every now and then, occurring from mere destructions (2). Safe
Crumple zones- are a structural feature used in automobiles. They help by absorbing the impact; this is by spreading the impact through parts of the car instead of in the one spot. This reflects back onto law number one, two and three. This is shown when the car hits the object it causes the car to slow down or completely stop (1). The crumble zone would protect the driver because all the energy has been diverted around the car, instead of the one spot. As a result of the cars mass and its acceleration, the force can be calculated (2). When the car crashes it’s most likely that the object w...
When it comes to cars, there are plenty of safety features incorporated by manufactures to ensure a smooth and safe ride. Some of these features seat belts, airbags, and antilock brakes. Nowadays, there have been great improvements to technology within cars to aid in the avoidance of collisions altogether. Examples of these technologies include blind spot detection, backup cameras, 360-degree cameras, and autonomous driving. Many of these newer safety features are there to avoid collisions. However, whenever a collision does occur, there is not much there to protect passengers in the rear of the car. Looking into this, there is evidence that shows that rear passengers do obtain injuries in collisions and pose the threat of contributing to others injuries. So, why are rear passenger airbags not standard in your vehicle?