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Thoracic Injury Criterion for Frontal Crash Applicable to All Restraint Systems
Technical Paper
2003-22-0015
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Language:
English
Abstract
For several years now, car manufacturers have made significant
efforts in the field of thoracic protection. After first limiting
the forces in the shoulder belt to 6 kN, these forces are now
usually limited to 4 kN, with airbags intentionally designed to
absorb the surplus of energy. If this technology is rewarded by a
considerable improvement in safety on the road, it remains
penalized by the usual biomechanical criteria, when calculated on
the Hybrid III and if applied to all restraint systems.
To remedy this problem a new criterion, valid in all the current
restraint configurations (belt, airbag only or airbag and belt) is
proposed. It is based on the measurement of the shoulder belt
forces and of the central deflection and consequently is directly
applicable to the current dummy model (Hybrid III). The use of
shoulder belt forces allows the separation of the belt and airbag
contributions to the deflection. A weighted criterion is calculated
from these deflections, taking into account the different risks
associated with a belt and an airbag for the same deflection. This
new criterion was developed using 65 simulations on the LAB human
model and validated by means of 48 sled tests from the literature,
consisting of Hybrid III dummy and PMHS tests performed in similar
configurations.
This paper describes the logic behind the development of the
criterion and gives all the parameters used as well as the elements
of validation.