Head Impact Protection : Effect of Head Form Trajectory and Type of Impactor on Deceleration Levels

Head impact protection is one of the major criteria for occupant safety. Testing labs across the world use two kinds of impactor i.e. linear impactor and pendulum impactor for development of interior fitments. There has always been debate on the usage of these impactors among vehicle manufacturers and testing agencies. Three different kinds of impact methods are widely used by OEM's and testing agencies are namely:

• Linear Impactor in Longitudinal Plane (LILP)
• Pendulum Impactor in Longitudinal Plane (PILP)
• Pendulum Impactor in Accidental Plane (PIAP)

This paper studies different impact testing methods. Large numbers of head form impacts have been carried out on standard instrument panel at selected points in order to reduce the statistical variations. Further has been used to correlate the results obtained in laboratory. CAE methods have been used all over the world for development purposes [1]. This paper highlights the effect of head form trajectory and type of impactor on deceleration levels.