Prospectus

Background: For the past three years (FY06-08) the Congress has funded the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) to undertake research on:

"Plastic and Composite Vehicles -- The Committee recognizes the development of plastics and polymer-based composites in the automotive industry and the important role these technologies play in improving and enabling automobile performance. The Committee recommends ($500,000) to continue development of a program to examine possible safety benefits of Lightweight Plastic and Composite Intensive Vehicles [PCIV]. The program will help facilitate a foundation between DOT, the Department of Energy and industry stakeholders for the development of safety-centered approaches for future light-weight automotive design."

The Volpe Center was tasked to evaluate and summarize the knowledge base on automotive lightweighting materials crash safety, identify related national and international research partnerships, and to develop a 2020 PCIV Safety Roadmap highlighting R&D priorities, technology challenges and opportunities. The initial effort focused on the PCIV crash safety performance research priorities, building on earlier technology integration roadmaps developed by the American Plastics Council (APC), now the American Chemistry Council- Plastics Division (ACC-PD).

The 2007 report is posted at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NRD/Multimedia/Crashworthiness
/4680PCIV_SafetyRoadmap-Nov2007.pdf

Workshop Goals and Objectives: Continuing Volpe Center research will broaden, deepen and clarify the PCIV Safety Roadmap R&D priorities identified in the report, and define the PCIV safety metrics and milestones. This workshop will engage SMEs on specific PCIV safety issues to:

1. Build consensus on the PCIV Safety Roadmap R&D priorities shown in Figure 1: Strategic Priorities for 2020 Plastics and Composite Intensive Vehicles Safety Assurance, and Figure 2 : Enhancing Plastics and Composites Intensive Vehicles Safety Performance With Plastics;
2. Identify, characterize and quantify the "potential safety benefits" of proposed lightweight composites in emerging PCIV design concepts;
3. Determine safety challenges and safety technology opportunities for emerging and future PCIV concepts.
4. Define near-term R&D priorities for improving crashworthiness prediction, measurement and verification for future PCIVs.