What's with today's garish, oversized grilles?
01-21-13 | 08:45 PM
#16
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Joined: Oct 2003
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From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
I think it's largely due to pedestrian safety requirements. I certainly don't think manufacturers, who have strict fuel economy standards, WANT to increase the front surface area (and therefore air resistance) of their vehicles. But the new requirements mean manufacturers have to design their cars with a high hood that provides cushioning for a body hitting it, as well as a larger front surface less likely to split a human in two.
I'm not sure I follow you here. I'm admittedly not an expert on the subject, but it seems that a pedestrian would be less likely to suffer severe injury or death on impact if he or she was allowed to slide up and over a lower front-end onto the hood, thereby dispelling some of the impact-force. With a large frontal-area, If you get hit with it, seems there's potential for more of the car's actual kinetic (motion) energy to smack into you and cause bodily damage instead of bouncing you up onto the hood, there that energy is dispelled.
That, BTW, is why hood-mounted ornaments were required to have spring-loads on them years ago....so that pedestrians, if hit and flung up on the hood, didn't have those ornaments ripping into them. Rolls-Royce, because of the constant teen-age fad of stealing the ornaments, went even one-better. At the touch of a button, the ornament automatically lowers back down into the big radiator/grille under a door-cover. (those Flying-Lady RR ornaments, of course, are quite expensive to replace)
Last edited by mmarshall; 01-21-13 at 08:54 PM.
01-22-13 | 06:52 AM
#17
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Joined: Feb 2007
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From: IL
Most limb injuries occur due to a direct blow from the bumper and the leading edge of the hood. This leads to contact fractures of the femur and the tibia/fibula and damage to the knee ligaments due to bending of the joint. Thus, attempts at reducing these injuries involve reducing the peak contact forces by making the bumper softer and increasing the contact area and by limiting the amount of knee bending by modifying the geometry of the front end of the car. Computer simulations and experiments with cadavers show that when cars have lower bumpers, the thigh and leg rotate together causing the knee to bend less and thus reducing the likelihood of ligament injuries. Deeper bumper profiles and structures under the bumper (such as the air dam) can also assist in limiting the rotation of the leg
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