Introduction

The SISAME (Structural Impact Simulation And Model Extraction) system has been developed by NHTSA R&D to extract optimal lumped-parameter structural impact models from actual or simulated vehicle crash event data.

At the core of this system SISAME-3D provides a full representation of three-dimensional vehicle structures to support modeling applications including oblique and nonoblique frontal and side impacts and vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility interactions. SISAME-3D can be also used for finite element model tuning and as a workbench for exploring the space of safety-optimized designs. The combination of optimal extraction and simulation of efficient low to mid complexity models makes SISAME-3D a powerful and unique tool for vehicle impact research.

The project is currently focused on extending the capabilities of SISAME-3D to better support vehicle impact modeling applications at NHTSA R&D, in particular vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility modeling.