This content is not included in
your SAE MOBILUS subscription, or you are not logged in.
Two New Areas Concerning Side impact Protection for Passenger Car Occupants
Annotation ability available
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
In vehicle crash accidents, approximately 27% to 30% of passenger car occupant casualties are attributed to side impact accidents. The annual death toll in side impacts for passenger car occupants reached 9,000 in 1975 and 1976 and has been between 7,000 and 8,000 in the 1980's. Since 1977, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and many other groups have conducted a significant amount of research on occupant side impact protection with emphasis on thorax injury reduction.
Three important problem areas in the side impact are (1) thorax-to-side interior impact, (2) head impacts with A-pillar/roof rail components and (3) occupant ejection through side doors/windows. While the first problem area has been thoroughly studied, the remaining two areas are seldom discussed and less well understood. Therefore, they are relatively new areas to many people. Since a large number of occupants are involved in these two areas, the potential for injury reduction could be very significant. The purpose of this study is to identify the nature and the extent of these problems and to explore injury mitigation concepts which may be easily applied to enhance side impact protection. A detailed accident data analysis and several experimental and analytical studies on potential safety approaches were carried out. The results show that the head impact problems are very well defined and effective safety countermeasures are readily available. Also, ejection mitigation is a valid approach for occupant injury reduction. Due to the complex nature of ejection problems, more work is required to determine performance requirements for ejection mitigation.
Recommended Content
Citation
Fan, W., "Two New Areas Concerning Side impact Protection for Passenger Car Occupants," SAE Technical Paper 871114, 1987, https://doi.org/10.4271/871114.Also In
References
- “Traffic Safety Trends and Forecasts” DOT-HS-806-479 Oct. 1983
- “Fatal Accident Reporting System” NCSA, NHTSA, Dept. of Transportation
- “National Crash Severity Study” NCSA, NHTSA, Dept. of Transportation
- Malliaris A.C. et al “A Search for priorities in Crash Protection” SAE paper 820242 Feb. 1982
- Fan W.R.S. Jettner E. “Light Vehicle Occupant Protection - Top & Rear Structures and interiors” SAE paper 820244 Feb. 1982
- Fan W.R.S. “Head impact with Roof-Pillar Support Structure - Problem Identification” SAE paper 831620 Oct. 1983
- Malliaris A.C. et al “Harm Causation and Ranking in Crashes” SAE paper 850090 Feb. 1985
- Kraus J.F. et al “The Incidence of Acute Brain Injury and Serious impairment in a Defined Population” American Journal of Epidemiology 119 2 1984
- Hodgson V.R. Thomas L.M. “Breaking Strength of the Human Skull vs. Impact Surface Curvature” DOT-HS-801-002 NHTSA 1973
- Got C. et al “Results of Experimental Head impacts on Cadavers - The Various Data Obtained and Their Relationship to Some Measured Physical Parameters” SAE paper 780887 Oct. 1978
- Stalnaker R.L. et al “Head impact response” SAE paper 770921 Oct. 1977
- Hodgson V.R. et al “Fracture Behavior of Skull Frontal Bone Against Cylindrical Surfaces” SAE paper 700909 Nov. 1970
- Got C. et al “Morphological and Bio-mechanical Study of 146 Human Skulls Used in Experimental impacts, in Relation with the Observed Injuries” SAE paper 831619 Oct. 1983
- Hirsh A.E. Ommaya A.D. “Protection from Brain Injury: The Relative Significance of Translational and Rotational Motion of the Head after impact” SAE paper 700898 Nov. 1970
- Gennarelli T.A. “Head Injury Lesion Analysis by CT Scan; Correlation to Neurological Variables and to Outcomes” DOT-HS-902-088 NHTSA 1983
- Gennarelli T.A. et al “Comparison of Translational and Rotational Head Motions in Experimental Cerebral Concussion” SAE paper 710797 Nov. 1971
- Chapon A. et al “Research on Brain Vulnerability from Real Accidents” Biomechanics of impacts in Road Accidents 170 181 1983
- Gennarelli T.A. “Mechanistic Approach to the Head Injuries: Clinical and Experimental Studies of the important Type of Injury” Head and Neck Injury Criteria, A Consensus Workshop 20 25 Ommaya A.K. NHTSA/DOT 1981
- Cooper P.R. “Skull Fracture and Traumatic Cerebrospinal Fluid Fistulas” Head Injury 65 82 Cooper, Williams Wilkins, Baltimore/London 1982
- Ono K. et al “Human Head Tolerance to Sagittal impact Reliable Estimation Deduced from Experimental Head Injury Using Subhuman Primates and Human Cadaver Skulls” SAE paper 801303 Oct. 1980
- Fan W.R.S. “The Role of Skull Fractures in Short Duration Head impacts” SAE paper 870321 Feb. 1987
- Fan W.R.S. “A Simple, Practical Method of Assessing Foam Padding Materials for Head impact Protection” SAE paper 860199 Feb. 1986
- “Side Interior Stiffness Measurement” DOT-HS-806-70B NHTSA Sept. 1984
- “Side impact Protection in Production Vehicles - Head/A-pillar impact Padding Evaluation” NHTSA Feb. 1986
- “A-pillar Padding Evaluation, Free Motion Headform and Hyge Sled Comparison” NHTSA Jan. 1987
- Prasad P. Mertz H.J. “The Position of the United States Delegation to the ISO Working Group 6 on the Use of HIC in the Automotive Environment” SAE paper 851246 May 1985
- “National Accident Sampling System” NCSA, NHTSA, Dept. of Transportation
- McGuigan R. Bondy Nancy “A Descriptive Study of Rollover Crashes” 1 48 DCT-HS-805-883 NHTSA 1981
- Cooke C.H. “Analysis of Safety Consequences of Improved Side impact Protection” NHISA, RM-ESS July 1985
- Clark C.C. Sursi P. “The Ejection Reduction Possibilities of Glass-Plastic Glazing” SAE paper 840390 Feb. 1984
- Clark C.C. Sursi P. “Car Crash Tests of Ejection Reduction by Glass-Plastic Side Glazing” SAE paper 851203 May 1985
- “Side Door Latch/Hinge Assembly Evaluation” DOT-HS-807-039 NHTSA 1986
- Green P.D. et al “Car Occupant Ejection in 919 Sampled Accidents in the UK - 1983-86” SAE paper 870323 Feb. 1987
- “Restraint System Usage in the Traffic Population” DOT-HS-806-714 1984
- “Restraint System Usage in the Traffic Population” DOT-HS-807-080 1987
- Lund A.K. et al “Motor Vehicle Occupant Fatalities in Four States with Seat Belt Use Laws” SAE paper 870224 Feb. 1987