Snowmobile Pole Crash Tests: Additional Testing and Analysis

Abstract

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper presents the results of five additional instrumented snowmobile crash tests and the updated findings when combined with the dataset from our previous publication (SAE# 2021-01-0876). This additional work expands on, and aims to better the understanding of, snowmobile collision dynamics and the severity of real-world collisions, given that minimal crash test data exists for snowmobiles compared to passenger vehicles.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">In the five new tests, the test snowmobile was accelerated forward into a pole, made from a tree trunk 38 cm in diameter. The first two pole impacts were completed at low-speed (i.e., less than 15 km/h) to determine a damage threshold. The subsequent two tests targeted 40 km/h impact speeds, and the last test targeted an impact speed of 80 km/h.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">From the tests, a more reliable damage threshold of 9 km/h was determined using the low-speed tests, equations were derived for the relationship between the maximum crush and the impact speed for snowmobiles sustaining frontal pole impact damage, and the data from this crash testing was combined with updated impact speed–maximum crush relationships, along with stiffness coefficients calculated in previous research.</div></div>