Biofidelity of Force Responses of Different Types of Human Surrogates in Oblique Side Impacts

In order to determine the biofidelity responses of anthropomorphic test devices, also called dummies, used in crashworthiness studies and develop injury criteria for trauma assessment devices, studies using post mortem human subjects (PMHS) are often necessary. From the perspective of side impacts, many studies are available on these issues when the applied load vector is pure lateral. Injuries, injury metrics, and injury criteria have been advanced for the current ES-2re device using matched-pair tests. Similar studies are needed for oblique loading as this mode is recognized in modern vehicle environments as an important vector for inducing trauma. Thus, the present study was designed to compare differences in the design of load-walls between different types of pure lateral tests, review literature to determine the need to conduct oblique side impact sled tests and present a detailed methodology to gather region-specific data (such as force-time curves) which can be used to accurately evaluate the local responses of PMHS and dummies, ES-2re and WorldSID. The consolidated graphs overlaying PMHS and the two dummy responses serve as a first step in the assessment of dummy biofidelity.