Predicting vehicle performance under the Global Technical Regulation on Pedestrian Protection using ANCAP test results

Abstract

Selected new vehicles are tested by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) to assess their level of pedestrian protection. The draft Global Technical Regulation (GTR) on pedestrian protection specifies a minimum level of protection that must be met in order for a vehicle design to be approved by regulatory bodies. This GTR may be adopted as an Australian Design Rule under a 1998 UNECE agreement. One possible implication of this is that many vehicles may require significant redesign in order to meet the GTR requirements. The GTR testing protocol is similar to the ANCAP tests, but differs in some respects. The individual impact tests are conducted under less severe conditions: the impact speed is lower, the child headform mass is higher, and the adult headform mass is slightly lower. This paper examines three new vehicles, and assesses their likelihood of meeting the requirements of the GTR, based on their ANCAP test results. A method for scaling the Head Injury Criterion (HIC) for different masses and velocities is used to predict GTR performance from a corresponding ANCAP test result. Among the vehicles considered, the areas tested would produce a significantly lower HIC by the GTR test method than by the ANCAP test method. However, on other vehicles there are many locations that were assessed as poor by ANCAP, which are likely to require redesign in order to meet the requirements of the GTR.