The FIA Institute and the German Motor Racing Association have been running a number of crash tests to help improve safety for young drivers in karting.
It all takes place in just a few seconds: the kart roars into the crash test carriage at 50km/h. A loud crash. Plastic splinters. Parts fly through the air. So does the dummy.
Crash tests often provide spectacular images but also important results. The FIA Institute and the German Motor Racing Association (DMSB – Deutscher Motor Sport Bund) are testing a passive safety element related to steering systems in karting, using a state-of-the-art crash-test dummy. An impact into a stack of tyres at 50 km/h is being simulated.
“Safety research is not only of central significance to the royalty of motor-racing, it is also very important for newcomers,” said Hubert Gramling, Head of Research at the FIA Institute.
Among other things, Gramling has been responsible for developing the Head And Neck Support (HANS) system and the high-speed protective barrier for Formula One, with an international team of engineers. Now the safety specialist is focusing on innovative concepts for karting, working very closely with the DMSB to do so.
The karts were driven ‘against the wall’ in 2001 for the first time under the direction of Michael Günther, technical expert in motor racing at the DMSB and member of the FIA Karting Research Group, founded in June 2004.
The goal of this most recent test is to develop a collapsible steering column which will help protect the driver’s chest in frontal impacts.
In the ADAC Technical Centre in Landsberg, carriage crash tests have been completed using a homologated Bambini chassis of the latest generation. The suitability of a deformation element between the steering wheel and steering column was tested, as well as its construction for various weight classes in karting.
In the event of a crash, the safety element is supposed to deform and shift the steering wheel parallel to the body of the driver in order to increase the available area and to minimise the risks of injury. In so doing, the impact of a very powerful force should tear the steering wheel out of the upper bearings to allow the driver to ‘exit’ the kart in the worst case scenario.
At the same time, reliable steering capability during driving must be ensured at all times. The deformation element has already proven on the kart track that it is suitable for racing and this was further proven after the latest tests in the crash centre.
Gramling said: “We have been able to prove that the new element works. It provides excellent measured values.”
Two measurements are of particular significance when evaluating the dummy data on a computer: impact on the chest, measured in millimetres, and the so-called viscosity criterion, a mathematical measurement of impact on the chest and the speed of the impact.
“We intend to achieve an impact level which is in the range of minor injuries to harmless”, said DMSB engineer Michael Günther.
When analyzing the high speed video, key questions are discussed: how did the steering wheel adjust itself to the upper body? How did the dummy get out of the kart? The damage pattern is examined directly at the kart. An investigation is undertaken as whether and how the deformation element has functioned.
After the evaluation, the experts decide which combination of parameters will be tested next. The rigidity of the steering column and the pull-out force of the upper steering bearing are subject to continual variation.
“After a crash test, we always have to adjust the parameters slightly to be able to get closer to our target with the next shot”, said Gramling. “Furthermore, our goal is to define exactly the range in which the safety concept works reliably. We have to test the threshold limits at the lower end as well as the upper end of the scale. Once we’ve found these two points, all of the intermediate values can be determined mathematically.”
The next step is to enable young drivers to use this equipment. Again, Gramling has the answer: “We aim to achieve 98 per cent of possible safety levels at 20 per cent of the current costs, making these safety devices available for as many young motor racing drivers as possible.”
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In the crash test, an impact against a stack of tires at 50 km/h is being simulated. A horn sounds twice in the crash hall. The orange rotating beacons on the wall have been activated. A 300,000 watt floodlight system puts the set ‘in a favourable light’.
The crash test carriage is accelerated from a distance of 60 meters using hydraulic drives and then decelerated. The crash pulse increases slowly, has a maximum of 23g at its peak for about 35 milliseconds and flatly decreases at the end. The dummy flies through the air. The high speed cameras don’t miss a thing.
They capture 1,000 images per second. This is important for analyzing the impact. The high-tech dummies are equipped with numerous sensors to measure the stresses during a crash test.
A fully equipped dummy is worth approximately €100,000 euros. One dummy used is the model “Hybrid III 5% Female”, which, 150 cm tall and weighing 49 kg, represents a junior driver. Another dummy, the “Hybrid III 10 Years”, 130 cm tall and weighing 35 kg, has the biometric properties of a Bambini driver. There are only three “Bambini test drivers” in Germany. |