Abstract The performance of belt, airbag, and force limited belt restraint systems for the driver were compared using frontal sled tests. Nine human cadaver and six dummy sled tests were conducted at 56 km/h using a test buck representing a mid-size vehicle. Subject instrumentation included upper and lower chestbands to measure local thoracic deformations and sternal and spinal accelerometers to record torso deceleration. Following the sled tests, radiographs and autopsy results were used to correlate cadaver injury with measured engineering parameters and dummy response. Chest compression, acceleration, change in curvature and Viscous Criteria were evaluated for all occupants. Occupant kinematics were determined from analysis of high speed film. Local differences in the chest loading behavior among the restraint systems were identified using the chestband contours. The results of the research indicate that improvements in thoracic occupant protection may be achieved with the use of force limited belt and...
[1]
Harold J. Mertz,et al.
The Effect of Limiting Shoulder Belt Load with Air Bag Restraint
,
1995
.
[2]
H. J. Miller,et al.
Occupant Performance with Constant Force Restraint Systems
,
1996
.
[3]
D. Viano,et al.
The Viscous Criterion - Bases and Applications of an Injury Severity Index for Soft Tissues
,
1986
.
[4]
H J Miller,et al.
Injury reduction with smart restraint systems
,
1995
.
[5]
Rolf H. Eppinger.
On the development of a deformation measurement system and its application toward developing mechanically based injury indices
,
1989
.
[6]
Jean-Yves Foret-Bruno,et al.
THORACIC DEFLECTION OF HYBRID III: DUMMY RESPONSE FOR SIMULATIONS OF REAL ACCIDENTS
,
1989
.