This article intends to present the first results of a long-term research project, which will result in developing a validated model of a pedestrian for the simulation of crash tests involving tram fronts and, where applicable, the fronts of other urban rail vehicles. The current phase of research includes results of the pilot experiment with a crash-test dummy, and these results supplement the results from simulations, thus demonstrating how important it is to pay special attention to the individual stages of a collision event and how important the localisation of and moulding by an individual tram's front panels are for the nature of the monitored stages. In the first stage, inertia of individual body segments plays a significant role, with the primary contact taking place between the tram's bumper and dummy's thigh. The dummy subsequently "takes the shape" of the tram's front with progressive bumps to shoulders and head following. At that moment, the tram brakes, and the dummy begins to disentangle from the front panel. The friction force between the dummy's soles and the surface of the rail track is very significant for the nature of this second stage of the collision event .The dummy then hits the ground. It is an accelerated fall, and under the given conditions, it is the stage that has the most devastating impact on the dummy. The simulation made shows the way to modify this dangerous stage to be less harmful to a pedestrian involved in a tram collision.

The main aim of this article is to show the possibilities of using tram windscreen impact tests in the analysis of human-machine accidents. Empirical experience shows that these accidents especially affect the head, which is at the same time one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body. Windscreen safety testing follows ECE standards and, inter alia, involves collisions with a headform. With regards to numerical simulations, however, it is essential to be able to determine the material characteristics of windscreens. Here it seems to be advantageous in terms of validity, reliability and the economic cost of using collisions with a rigid body where only the glass absorbs all of the kinetic collision energy. The outcome of these tests is a waveform of the contact force's magnitude as a function of deformation in the direction the force acts. Along with the time course of acceleration of the bumper and its kinetic energy on impact, this information can serve as boundary conditions to verify mathematical models.

The article concerns the testing two thin-walled fiberglass materials. The aim of this work was to perform tensile tests at room temperature in order to determine the stress-relative deformation dependence in selected directions and to compare the properties of each individual material in these directions. Characteristics determined in this way are to be used as inputs in simulation models forming a part of the process of validating the dummy model's behaviour in simulations of collisions of the tram front with a pedestrian. Tests have been conducted of such properties of those materials used for external panelling of 15T and T3 tram fronts. The knowledge of these properties is crucial in terms of the mentioned validation. The output of the measurement includes tensile diagrams, including the evaluation of the ultimate tensile strength, elastic modulus and relative elongation at the ultimate tensile strength. Also, the conversion of the elastic modulus for the fibreglass with a different fibre volume part is presented.tensile tests, material, properties, laminate, tram.

The study is focused on the dynamic response of head and thoracic area of an anthropomorphic test device (ATD) during low-impact collisions with a tram. Two collision scenarios were analysed: the frontal impact (a chest as a primary contact area) and side impact (a thigh as a primary contact area). The measurements used a pedestrian dummy (Hybrid III 50 th percentile male dummy, Jasti Co., ltd., Tokyo, Japan) and a unique pendulum impact testing machine (impactor) of own design. The crash tests were conducted at various impact intensities (velocities) into the chest and left thigh of dummy. The primary outcome variable was a resultant magnitude of acceleration measured in the area of thoracic vertebra Th5 and on the vertex of head. The differences between both areas of interest were analysed as well. The results provide the analysis of dynamic behaviour of head and chest of the dummy at low impacts, the validation of impactor for crash-test analyses and a possible way to verify the use of dummy in similar experimental settings.

1 , Eva Tlapakova (0000-0003-3344-6060) 1 , Monika Sorfova (0000-0002-3442-7796) 1 , Ondrej Fanta (0000-0001-9978-9221) 1 , Petr Kubovy (0000-0001-7634-2910) 1 , Frantisek Lopot (0000-0001-5731-6784) 2 , Filip Hrusa (0000-0003-4522-4350) 1 , Lukas Fara (0009-0004-7491-8292) 3 , Roman Jezdik (0000-0002-6691-0600) 4 , Hynek Purs (0009-0009-8001-4085) 5 , Tommi Tikkanen (0000-0003-4076-4745) 6 , Martin Novak (0000-0002-2010-4398) 7 , Lubos Tomsovsky* (0000-0003-0047-6028) 1 .