Selected Problems in a Two-Vehicle Impact Collision Modeling

Abstract

In this paper, a potential use of the basic parameters of a road collision in a forensic activity was analyzed. A selected case of a frontal, eccentric, and oblique collision between two motor vehicles was analyzed from the point of view of both a computer simulation and a model. The case has been presented as an attempt to identify the collision parameters necessary to conduct the analytical calculations useful in analyzing specific road accidents. The simulation results were obtained in V-SIM software, which is widely used in collision reconstructions by forensic experts and appraisers. It was further analyzed from the point of view of a mathematical model, with the use of the force–impulse method and avoiding the use of the coefficients of restitution in the normal and tangential directions versus the adopted coordinate frame. In the analytical calculations, apart from the masses and the velocities of vehicles, the collision angles and the vicarial coefficient of adhesion between the colliding vehicles (µ) are also important. The approach presented in the article enables an expert to verify the obtained results of a computer program simulation.