Study of the speeds of vehicles involved in collisions by means of analysis of mechanical deformations of structural parts

Abstract

This work aims to describe a method for calculating the speed of vehicles involved in traffic accidents by analyzing mechanical deformations in various parts of these vehicles. The method is not unheard of in the world, but in Brazil the studies are in the embryonic phase, being applied some methods such as the conservation of total energy and the conservation of the amount of movement, but in both the deformations of the parts are not taken into account, although a considerable part of the energy or the amount of movement is used to cause the deformation itself. Some authors describe in their scientific works each of these methods to calculate speed, but do not take into account, for example, the moment of inertia of each of the vehicles, when they consider it as an estimate to be added to the calculation of the speeds of each of the vehicles the damage observed in the vehicles, but do not take into account the mechanical deformations that occurred in their structures. The purpose of this is the analysis of deformations in structural parts of motor vehicles involved in traffic accidents and a possible way to determine or estimate the traffic speed of each of the vehicles before the collision. This study applies the knowledge about mechanical deformations in the practice of calculating collision speeds in traffic accidents, in the field of forensic engineering, and with that, seeks to point out, in many cases, the true cause of the speeding violation, or a more approximate calculation of the true value of speeds of the vehicles involved in a collision.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.56238/sevened2024.009-009