VEDYAC: A tool for roadside safety hardware research.

The VEDYAC (Vehicle Dynamics And Crashdynamics) model is a mathematical computer-model and, as such, a further developed and more generalised model than the first extensive computer model MAMIAC that originated about 1972, which was developed for simulations of collisions of passenger cars with steel guardrail barriers. Certain conditions have been set for the new VEDYAC model: the applicability should be enlarged while lowering the operation costs considerably. This paper contains information on specifications for the VEDYAC model, its mechanical principles, its options to describe the shape of bodies, the ways it generates forces, equations of motion and solution methods, input and output data management, verifications/validations, and applications of the VEDYAC model.