Comparison of Roadside Crash Injury Metrics using Event Data Recorders

The occupant impact velocity (OIV) and acceleration severity index (ASI) are competing measures of crash severity used to assess occupant injury risk in full-scale crash tests involving roadside safety hardware, e.g. guardrail. Delta-V, or the maximum change in vehicle velocity, is the traditional metric of crash severity for real world crashes. This study compares the ability of the OIV, ASI, and delta-V to discriminate between serious and non-serious occupant injury in real world frontal collisions. Vehicle kinematics data from event data recorders (EDRs) were matched with detailed occupant injury information for 180 real world crashes. Cumulative probability of injury risk curves were generated using binary logistic regression for belted and unbelted data subsets. By comparing the available fit statistics and performing a separate ROC curve analysis, the more computationally intensive OIV and ASI were found to offer no significant predictive advantage over the simpler delta-V

The Pursuit of Tangible Happiness:

The Module Isomorphism Problem Reconsidere

Evaluation of Current Repair Criteria for Longitudinal Barrier with Crash Damage

To protect motorists and avoid tort liability, highway agencies expend considerable resources to repair damaged longitudinal barriers, such as w-beam guardrails. With limited funding available, though, highway agencies are unable to maintain all field-installed systems in the ideal as-built condition. Instead, these agencies focus on repairing only damage that has a detrimental effect on the safety performance of the barrier. The distinction between minor damage and more severe performance-altering damage, however, is not always clear. This paper presents a critical review of current United States (US) and Canadian criteria on whether to repair damaged longitudinal barrier. Barrier repair policies were obtained via comprehensive literature review and a survey of US and Canadian transportation agencies. In an analysis of the maintenance procedures of 40 US States and 8 Canadian transportation agencies, fewer than one-third of highway agencies were found to have quantitative measures to determine when barrier repair is warranted. In addition, no engineering basis for the current US barrier repair guidelines could be found. These findings underscore the importance of the development of quantitative barrier repair guidelines based on a strong technical foundation

Structural model optimization using statistical evaluation

The results of research in applying statistical methods to the problem of structural dynamic system identification are presented. The study is in three parts: a review of previous approaches by other researchers, a development of various linear estimators which might find application, and the design and development of a computer program which uses a Bayesian estimator. The method is tried on two models and is successful where the predicted stiffness matrix is a proper model, e.g., a bending beam is represented by a bending model. Difficulties are encountered when the model concept varies. There is also evidence that nonlinearity must be handled properly to speed the convergence

Ertragsentwicklung von Erbsen sowie Sommergerste in Reinsaat und in Mischung mit Leindotter oder Koriander im Ökologischen Landbau

Mischkulturen können unterschiedliche Wachstumsbedingungen besser ausschöpfen als Monokulturen. Im Gemenge mit Leguminosen können Nicht-Leguminosen überschüssigen Stickstoff aus der Bodenlösung aufnehmen. Ein ökonomischer Zusatzertrag wird bei einer Beimengung von Leindotter zu Erbsen oder Sommergerste diskutiert. Erbsenreinsaaten erreichten im Vergleich zu beiden Leindotter-Varianten gesichert höhere Erträge; Erbsen mit resp. ohne Koriander unterschieden sich nicht. Sommergerste – Reinsaaten waren bezüglich dem Ertrag den Mischungen mit Leindotter überlegen; Koriander wurde von der Sommergerste vollständig unterdrückt. Abschließend kann festgehalten werden, dass unter limitierenden Niederschlägen im pannonischen Klimaraum dem Mischkulturanbau enge Grenzen gesetzt sind

Properties of Encroachments and the Associated Roadway and Roadside Environment in the Second Strategic Highway Research Program

An encroachment is defined as a vehicle departing the lanes of the traveled way and entering the roadside or median. Encroachments have been previously characterized by Hutchinson and Kennedy and by Cooper, in studies conducted in 1964 and 1978, respectively. Both studies are more than 40 years old, and both roadways and vehicles have changed significantly since data collection ended, presenting the need for an updated encroachment study. This study identified and characterized encroachment events in the Second Strategic Highway Research Program Naturalistic Driving Study (SHRP 2 NDS). Then, we compared the statistical distributions of roadway and roadside environmental factors weighted by their occurrence in SHRP 2 NDS normal driving and during these encroachment events. This weighting represented the typical infrastructure SHRP 2 vehicles encountered, as opposed to the infrastructure installed. Segments of roadway encountered more frequently or encroachment areas represented more frequently were weighted more heavily. A total of 863,280 SHRP 2 trips containing normal driving and road-departure events were selected from the SHRP 2 dataset which included 215,993 h of driving. A total of 278,415 departure events were found. Encroachment events were similar to normal driving in roadway grade, shoulder width, and lane width. Encroachment events occurred more frequently on roadway sections with depressed medians, one or two lanes in the travel direction, smaller horizontal curve radii, or rumble strips present

Magneto-elastic torsional oscillations of magnetars

We extend a general-relativistic ideal magneto-hydrodynamical code to include the effects of elasticity. Using this numerical tool we analyse the magneto-elastic oscillations of highly magnetised neutron stars (magnetars). In simulations without magnetic field we are able to recover the purely crustal shear oscillations within an accuracy of about a few per cent. For dipole magnetic fields between 5 x 10^13 and 10^15 G the Alfv\'en oscillations become modified substantially by the presence of the crust. Those quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) split into three families: Lower QPOs near the equator, Edge QPOs related to the last open field line and Upper QPOs at larger distance from the equator. Edge QPOs are called so because they are related to an edge in the corresponding Alfv\'en continuum. The Upper QPOs are of the same kind, while the Lower QPOs are turning-point QPOs, related to a turning point in the continuous spectrum.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, Proceedings of NEB14, to appear in J. Phys.: Conf. Se

Comparison of Vehicle-Based Crash Severity Metrics for Predicting Occupant Injury in Real-World Oblique Crashes

The flail space model (FSM) is currently used in U.S. roadside hardware crash testing as a means of assessing occupant injury risk using observed vehicle kinematics data. European roadside hardware crash tests use an FSM variant along with a variant of the acceleration severity index (ASI). Although the FSM and ASI are currently used in roadside hardware testing, other vehicle-based crash severity metrics exist. Previous research has focused on examining the ability of these metrics to predict injury in frontal crashes. Despite the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware prescribing a significant number of oblique crash tests, there has been little research on how well these metrics predict real-world oblique crash injury. This study compared the ability of six different vehicle-based metrics to predict occupant injury in oblique crashes: maximum delta-v, occupant impact velocity, ridedown acceleration, ASI, occupant load criterion, and vehicle pulse index. The crash severity metrics were calculated from real-world crash pulse data recorded by event data recorders. Oblique crashes from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System were used to train logistic regression models that predict moderate to fatal injuries. The models were then compared on a dataset of oblique crashes from the Crash Investigation Sampling System. The results of this study confirmed that vehicle-based metrics provide a reasonable means of predicting real-world occupant injury risk in oblique crashes and suggest little difference between the investigated metrics. In addition to the vehicle-based metrics, belt use and vehicle damage location were found to influence injury risk

Three-dimensional Models of Core-collapse Supernovae From Low-mass Progenitors With Implications for Crab

We present 3D full-sphere supernova simulations of non-rotating low-mass (~9 Msun) progenitors, covering the entire evolution from core collapse through bounce and shock revival, through shock breakout from the stellar surface, until fallback is completed several days later. We obtain low-energy explosions [~(0.5-1.0)x 10^{50} erg] of iron-core progenitors at the low-mass end of the core-collapse supernova (LMCCSN) domain and compare to a super-AGB (sAGB) progenitor with an oxygen-neon-magnesium core that collapses and explodes as electron-capture supernova (ECSN). The onset of the explosion in the LMCCSN models is modelled self-consistently using the Vertex-Prometheus code, whereas the ECSN explosion is modelled using parametric neutrino transport in the Prometheus-HOTB code, choosing different explosion energies in the range of previous self-consistent models. The sAGB and LMCCSN progenitors that share structural similarities have almost spherical explosions with little metal mixing into the hydrogen envelope. A LMCCSN with less 2nd dredge-up results in a highly asymmetric explosion. It shows efficient mixing and dramatic shock deceleration in the extended hydrogen envelope. Both properties allow fast nickel plumes to catch up with the shock, leading to extreme shock deformation and aspherical shock breakout. Fallback masses of <~5x10^{-3} Msun have no significant effects on the neutron star (NS) masses and kicks. The anisotropic fallback carries considerable angular momentum, however, and determines the spin of the newly-born NS. The LMCCSNe model with less 2nd dredge-up results in a hydrodynamic and neutrino-induced NS kick of >40 km/s and a NS spin period of ~30 ms, both not largely different from those of the Crab pulsar at birth.Comment: 47 pages, 27 figures, 6 tables; minor revisions, accepted by MNRA

Constraining relativistic models through heavy ion collisions

Relativistic models can be successfully applied to the description of compact star properties in nuclear astrophysics as well as to nuclear matter and finite nuclei properties, these studies taking place at low and moderate temperatures. Nevertheless, all results are model dependent and so far it is unclear whether some of them should be discarded. Moreover, in the regime of hot hadronic matter very few calculations exist using these relativistic models, in particular when applied to particle yields in heavy ion collisions. In the present work we comment on the known constraints that can help the selection of adequate models in this regime and investigate the main differences that arise when the particle production during a Au+Au collision at RHIC is calculated with different models.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, 3 table