Force Corridors of Post Mortem Human Surrogates in Oblique Side Impacts from Sled Tests

To develop region-specific force corridors in side impacts under oblique loadings using post mortem human surrogates (PMHS). Unembalmed PMHS were positioned on a sled. Surrogates contacted a segmented, modular/ scalable load-wall to isolate region-specific forces (shoulder, thorax, abdomen, pelvis). Heights and widths of segmented load-wall plates were adjustable in sagittal and coronal planes to accommodate anthropometry variations. Load cells were used to gather region-specific forces. Tests were conducted at 6.7 m/s. Peak forces and times of attainments, and standard corridors (mean ± 1 SD) are given for the four torso regions and summated forces. The mean age, stature, and total body mass of the five male PMHS were: 56.6 ± 4.4 years, 183 ± 3.5 cm and 70.6 ± 9.0 kg. Peak pelvis forces were the greatest, followed by thorax, abdomen and shoulder. Sequence of times of attainments of peak forces initiating from pelvis increased rostrally to abdomen to thorax and shoulder regions. Corridors were tight in all regions, except shoulder. As previous force corridors were based solely on pure-lateral impacts and region-specific forces were not extracted, the present oblique responses using anthropometry-specific load-wall design can be used to develop injury criteria and evaluate the biofidelity of dummies.