A Proposal of Middle Speed Hybrid III 50 ^th Dummy Chest Calibration Test

The Hybrid III 50th male dummy is widely used in front impact crash tests in the world to evaluate the vehicle safety performance. The chest impact calibration test should be conducted after certain amount of crash tests to ensure that the dummy has the right performance during the crash tests. The impact velocity in the current chest calibration tests is 6.71 m/s and the chest displacement corridor is 63.5 mm to 72.6 mm, which was based on the cadaver tests carried out in 1970s. After over forty years' development, the vehicle safety has been improved significantly with applications of seat belt and airbag technologies. In the European and China new car assessment program (ENCAP and CNCAP), the higher performance limit for the front impact dummy chest compression is 22mm and the lower performance limit is 50 mm, which is much lower than the dummy chest calibration corridor. In this paper, the dummy rib assembly structure is analyzed and the rib impact FEA simulation was also conducted. It is found the high speed impact will cause the damping material fracture, which is glued on the rib steel, and the glue de bonding. A proposal of middle speed chest calibration test with compression of about 50 mm was made to match the ENCAP and CNCAP lower performance limit.