A Method for Calculating the Velocity of Corner-to-Corner Rear-End Collisions of Vehicles Based on Collision Deformation Analysis

To improve the efficiency of solving vehicle collision velocity and provide sufficient evidence for the identification of accident responsibility, we proposed a method combining the momentum equation and finite element simulation. We built a finite element simulation model of a vehicle where multiple collision simulation experiments were carried out, and studied the calculation method of collision deformation. After fitting and analyzing the simulated deformation data of an accident vehicle under different velocities through collision simulation experiments, a relationship model between collision velocity and deformation was established, and a method to solve the collision velocity was proposed by combing the existing two-dimensional collision momentum equation of the vehicle. For actual collision cases, the proposed velocity solution method and the simulation software were used for reconstruction analyses, respectively, and the results of the instantaneous contact velocity of vehicle collision were compared. It was found that the velocity calculation results obtained using the two methods above were in good agreement; the shape and depth of the simulated deformation were consistent with the actual deformation of the vehicle.