Vehicle Research Center

The VRC's 22,000-square-foot crash hall has three runways to accommodate front and side tests replicating crashes into another vehicle or fixed object. The cavernous crash hall can even handle tests involving a parked tractor-trailer. We conduct 50-70 crash tests each year, and representatives from auto manufacturers are welcome to watch.

Apart from crashing real vehicles, we have used the runways to evaluate new technologies such as adaptive headlights and rearview camera systems.

We use specially designed crash test barriers when we evaluate how vehicles protect people in front and side impacts. In the moderate overlap front test, a fast-moving vehicle strikes a deformable barrier made of aluminum honeycomb that crushes like a real car would in a crash. It's mounted to a larger barrier that's 320,000 pounds of steel and concrete.

In the small overlap test, we use a 5-foot-tall rigid barrier with a radius of about 6 inches representing the outer corner of a car or a tree or post. The test vehicle strikes the barrier at 40 mph.

In the side evaluation, the test vehicle is parked and the barrier itself moves toward it at 31 mph. The 3,300-pound barrier strikes the driver's side of the vehicle. The barrier's face is shaped to simulate the typical front end of a pickup or SUV.

We also perform vehicle-to-vehicle crashes, mostly for research purposes. An especially memorable crash test was the one we conducted for the 50th anniversary of IIHS. The Sept. 9, 2009, crash featured a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air versus a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu in a moderate overlap front test at 40 mph.

Beneath the crash hall floor is a propulsion system that can accelerate full-size pickup trucks to 50 mph on the VRC's two 600-foot runways. Speeds up to 25 mph can be reached on a 200-foot runway situated perpendicular to the longer ones. The propulsion system, the first of its type in North America, uses compressed nitrogen to run hydraulic motors that, in turn, drive the cables that tow the vehicles to their designated impact speeds.

Just before the countdown begins for every test, bright light floods the crash hall. The lighting system provides up to 750,000 watts of illumination without glare, perfect for capturing digital video and still images at multiple angles. Onboard cameras and additional ones positioned in the crash hall record the key footage that helps us assess vehicle performance and share the story with media outlets worldwide.

Photographers take detailed before and after photos of vehicles in a special studio equipped with a turntable that floats on a cushion of air to display vehicles from various angles.

Nearly every crash requires a test dummy to help engineers understand what would happen to a person if they were in a similar crash.

So far, no single dummy is sufficiently humanlike to be used in all crash tests. IIHS uses three types of dummies for front, side and rear tests. We also have different sizes, ranging from a 6-month-old infant to a 95th percentile man. A fully instrumented dummy costs about $200,000.

Our workhorse dummy is the 50th percentile Hybrid III male. He's 5 foot 10 and weighs 172 pounds and is used in our frontal test programs.

SID-IIs is the dummy we use for side tests. It's the size of a 5th percentile woman or average 12-year-old child.

The dummy we use for rear tests is called BioRID. He has articulating vertebrae and reacts very much like a human would in a rear crash.

A dummy's sensors measure forces on and acceleration of the head, legs, feet and other body parts. Sensors also measure deformation of the chest.  Engineers compare these measurements against values of stress and strain known to exceed the strength of human bones and tissues to determine how a real person might be injured.

Since dummies are made of metal and plastic, they must be calibrated to ensure they will react like a human would in crashes. Calibration is also important for consistency of results and ensures our dummies perform the same as dummies used in other test labs.

A little makeup comes into play, too. Before each test, technicians apply greasepaint to the dummy's face, hands, knees and shins. During the crash, the paint rubs off wherever the dummy contacts the airbags, dashboard, doorframe or other vehicle parts. The telltale marks help engineers understand how the dummy moved during the test. The dummy's head has been known to move outside the driver window in some particularly poor-performing vehicles, leaving paint marks on the barrier or striking vehicle.

Sled lab

Tests don't always involve crashing entire cars. Components like head restraints and car-related gear such as child restraints can be tested on a sled that runs on fixed rails to simulate a crash.

The components are attached to the sled, and, for most tests, dummies are positioned in or on the components. Then the sled is programmed to create accelerations mimicking those in a vehicle's occupant compartment during the fraction of a second of a real-world crash.

The sled can be programmed to simulate a range of crash types at both high and low speeds. This method is useful to study components whose performance in a crash wouldn't be influenced by the deformation of the vehicle itself. When crash forces alone are sufficient to evaluate a component, sled tests make sense because they're less expensive and easier to set up than full-scale vehicle tests.

Roof strength testing

One important vehicle test conducted at the VRC doesn't involve any kind of crash, real or simulated. To measure roof strength, IIHS uses a roof crush machine with hydraulic cylinders that press a metal plate into one corner of a vehicle's roof at a constant speed. The plate moves about an eighth of an inch per second. The maximum force sustained by the roof before it caves in five inches is compared with the vehicle's weight to find the strength-to-weight ratio. This is a good assessment of vehicle structural protection in rollover crashes.

Booster evaluations

The Institute evaluates booster seats at the VRC to assess which models are likely to provide good lap and shoulder belt fit in a range of vehicles. Engineers use a special dummy representing an average-size 6-year-old child. For any given booster seat, the engineers measure how the safety belts fit under four conditions spanning the range of safety belt configurations in vehicles.

LATCH ease-of-use evaluations

When a vehicle arrives at the VRC for testing, engineers often perform a LATCH ease-of-use evaluation. LATCH, which stands for Lower Anchors and Tethers, is a system of child restraint installation hardware required in all new vehicles. Installing a child restraint is supposed to be easier using LATCH than using the vehicle safety belt, but in many vehicles it could be simpler.

Engineers use special tools to measure the depth of the lower anchors within the seat bight, the force required to attach a connector to the lower anchors, and the clearance angle around the lower anchors. They also record the location of the tether anchor and whether there is any confusing hardware that could be mistaken for the tether anchor.

Work on our 15 acres of outdoor track focuses on crash avoidance technologies.

Since 2013, Institute engineers have been testing vehicles' automatic emergency braking capabilities for our front crash prevention ratings. Recently, researchers have been looking at how well such systems recognize pedestrians.

IIHS headlight ratings, launched in 2016, are based on nighttime tests conducted on the track.

In the past, IIHS researchers have used track tests to demonstrate the effects of antilock brakes and electronic stability control.

The Institute greatly enhanced its crash avoidance research and testing capabilities with a major expansion in September 2015. The original 1,000-foot-long track was expanded to allow more space for high-speed maneuvers, and a brand new 300-by-700-foot track with a 115-foot-high steel and fabric roof was built. The covered track gives IIHS the ability to run many kinds of tests year-round in any kind of weather.

A significant part of the VRC's operations are powered by a 260 kilowatt solar array. Located on three-quarters of an acre next to the covered track, the array was installed in December 2016.

IIHS contracted with Secure Futures, a company that works with nonprofit organizations to help them benefit from the tax credits that make solar power a cost-effective option for commercial businesses and for homeowners. Secure Futures owns the solar equipment at the VRC, and IIHS pays a set rate for the power generated by the array. With the price of power from the grid expected to rise faster than the rates IIHS will pay Secure Futures, the Institute is set to save money over the coming years.

Powering the VRC requires anywhere from 71,000 to 114,000 kilowatt hours per month, with the highest usage in the summer, when air conditioning in the buildings is running at full blast. For comparison, the average U.S. home uses about 900 kWh per month.

The system was designed to meet about one-third of the VRC's energy needs, but so far, it has been exceeding that, providing anywhere from 36 percent to 44 percent of the energy used at the facility in a month. On weekends, when less power is used at the VRC, excess electricity generated by the array is fed into the grid, resulting in a credit on the VRC's electric bill.

In the first six months of operation, the solar array kept 119 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere — equivalent to 17,488 gallons of gasoline — according to estimates provided by Secure Futures.