3561. The Importance Of Inertia Properties Measurement For Road Accident Reconstruction

Paper

Abstract

The paper refers to the accurate reconstruction of road accidents which often requires the proper computation of the motion of vehicles before and after crash. A sensitivity analysis is performed for quantifying the effects of the main mass properties on accurate accident reconstruction. In particular the respective uncertainties of the location of the centre of gravity and of the moment of inertia around the vertical axis of crashed vehicles are considered. The final aim of such a theoretical investigation is assessing and prescribing the measurement accuracy of both the centre of gravity location and the inertia tensor components of crashed vehicles. An existing test rig for measuring the c.g. location and the inertia tensor of crashed vehicles (pre- and post- impact), meeting the accuracy determined on the basis of the theoretical study, is presented. The theoretical analysis shows that an accurate accident reconstruction needs accurate measurements of both the centre of gravity location and the inertia tensor of crashed automobiles.