Safety Assessment and Crash Compatibility of Heavy Quadricycle under Frontal Impact Collisions

An electric heavy quadricycle, categorized as an L7e vehicle, is an alternative solution for

sustainable mobility with a lower carbon footprint and high energy consumption efficiency. However,

accidental crashes of quadricycles with larger vehicle opponents can cause extensive damage to their

structures and fatal injury to the occupants due to their geometry drawback in limited space in the

front crumple zone. This work investigates the crashworthiness performance and safety assessment of

the L7e vehicle under rigid wall crash tests and crash compatibility in car-to-car collisions with a sedan

and an SUV. Crash scenarios are simulated using a nonlinear finite element analysis via LS-DYNA to

evaluate structural crashworthiness and occupant injuries of a hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy.

The compatible vertical alignment of the primary energy-absorbing structure substantially affects the

safety of the quadricycle under a frontal crash. A secondary energy-absorbing component should

be adapted to the L7e vehicle to achieve vertical alignment with different vehicle sizes. In addition,

the typical rigid-wall frontal crash test at 50 kph considerably underestimates the structural damage

and occupant injury of the L7e vehicle compared to car-to-car collisions. Thus, additional crash tests

representing car-to-car collisions that account for the car’s smaller size and lighter mass should be

included in the safety regulation for the L7e vehicle.