Front Small Overlap (FSO), a new test mode introduced by IIHS is used for differentiating North American market vehicles on their safety ratings with the Top Safety Pick (TSP) status. Current paper describes a production ready version of a non-traditional (door insert) concept. Small overlap test mode demands occupant cage integrity which can be achieved from structural countermeasures in the Side Sill, A-pillar or Front body hinge pillar. These structural measures add mass and need lead time for development (not feasible for existing vehicles). Current study describes door insert design that can be incorporated into the doors for providing improved strength for small overlap loading conditions. Paper investigates composites / structural plastic design onto existing impact door beams (Within the available packaging space). The door insert, along with improved CAB deployment capability, would provide improvement on existing vehicle safety ratings.

The objective of this study is to investigate how the target vehicle’s structural response to NHTSA’s Research Moving Deformable Barrier (RMDB), during oblique impact conditions, compares with actual vehicle to vehicle impacts. It tabulates vehicle kinematics, deformation mode and structural intrusions for both the simulated field accident situations, with a SUV and a small car bullet vehicles, onto a small car target vehicle. These parameters are then compared with those resulting from the RMDB impact simulations. The differences are highlighted and quantified. The effects of the bullet vehicles variation in impact speed were also investigated. The paper details sensitivity of the RMDB’s Principle Direction of Force by varying the impact overlap percentage. Lastly, further modifications to the RMDB have been suggested to improve its vehicle to vehicle relevance. The FE models used in this research were a full vehicle, restraints and occupant integrated small car model along with a midsized SUV simulation model.