Crush Analysis

A crush or energy analysis is the scientific process of quantifying energy for the purpose of determining speeds associated with a crash event. A vehicle running into something solid will suffer crush damage as its forward motion suddenly stops. The kinetic energy a vehicle has because of its respective speed is absorbed by the body of the vehicle. The faster it goes, the greater the amount of energy to be absorbed, and therefore the greater the crush damage. The study of crush damage has enabled crash reconstructionists to determine the various speeds of a vehicle involved in a collision, i.e. delta-V, impact speed, and post-impact speed.

When using a crush analysis, we are determining the amount of energy required to do the damage. CG Consulting uses or looks at both a momentum and crush analysis in applicable accidents. By doing this, a good reconstruction analysis will be completed by comparing the final speeds of the vehicle(s) by both a momentum and energy solution. This ensures a valid solution has likely been found in the reconstruction of the collision.

CG Consulting offers a free online crush calculator which you can use again and again. This crush calculator is a Microsoft Excel based program. Click on the Download Crush Calculator box to download the crush calculator.