CONTEXT A car occupant could be killed if struck by another occupant who was catapulted forward, backward, or sideways in a crash. OBJECTIVE To estimate the association between death of a car occupant (the target) and restraint use by other occupants. DESIGN Matched-pair cohort study comparing the outcomes of 2 target occupants in the same passenger car that crashed. SETTING United States...

PURPOSE Rear-end crashes attribute to a large portion of total crashes in China, which lead to many casualties and property damage, especially when involving commercial vehicles. This paper aims to investigate the critical factors for occupant injury severity in the specific rear-end crash type involving trucks as the front vehicle (FV). METHODS This paper investigated crashes occurred from 2...

NHTSA has developed and conducted a vehicleto-vehicle crash test program to evaluate the statistical correlation between vehicle performance measures and the probability of driver fatality in a crash partner vehicle. The test program uncovered some concerns regarding NHTSA’s rigid barrier data collection and review methods. The vehicle-tovehicle tests did not provide clear insight into the mech...

Active safety features and adjustments to the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) consumer-information crash tests have the potential to decrease the number of serious traffic injuries each year, according to previous studies. However, literature suggests that risk reductions, particularly in the automotive market, are often accompanied by adjusted consumer risk tolerance, and so these potential ...

Heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems are significant consumers of energy, however building management systems do not typically operate them in accordance with occupant movements. Due to the delayed response of HVAC systems, prediction of occupant locations is necessary to maximize energy efficiency. In this paper we present two approaches to occupant location prediction based o...

As a clean energy technology, the development of electric vehicles (EVs) is challenged by lightweight design, battery safety, and range. In this study, our simulations indicate that using a flexible structure of battery module has the potential to overcome the limitations in battery-powered EVs, contributing to a new design. Specifically, we focus on optimizing the structure of vehicle battery ...

Our goal in this work is to develop analytical tools to support the definition of balanced and compatible sets of vehicle specifications in the early stages of vehicle development. In this paper, we discuss the development and application of a Technical Feasibility Model (TFM) that may be used in preliminary design to assess the technical feasibility and optimality of specified combinations of ...

90 HIV Infection Among Partners of HIV-Infected Black Men Who Have Sex with Men — North Carolina, 2011–2013 95 Noninfluenza Vaccination Coverage Among Adults — United States, 2012 103 Global Control and Regional Elimination of Measles, 2000–2012 108 Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Recommended Immunization Schedules for Persons Aged 0 Through 18 Years — United States, 2014 110 Advis...

Two fully loaded (80,000 pounds nominal weight) tractor semi-trailer trucks were impacted into an instrumented wall at 55 miles per hour and an oblique angle of 15 degrees to the wall. This effort was conducted under two separate contracts, one under FHWA and the other NHTSA. The objective of the FHWA contract was to determine lateral impact forces in heavy vehicle collisions with an instrument...

This paper gives an overview of the current industry based projects in the field of vehicle modeling and simulation in the Duisburg Mechatronics Laboratory. It shows the wide range of research fields covered in Duisburg, including vehicle systems, vehicle dynamics, occupant safety, adaptive cruise control, power steering, hardware in the loop, fault tolerant real time systems and tolerance anal...