Evaluations of dummy injury readings obtained in regulatory crash tests and new car assessment program tests provide indices for the development of crash safety performance in the process of developing new vehicles. Based on these indices, vehicle body structures and occupant restraint systems are designed to meet the required occupant injury criteria. There are many types of regulatory tests and new car assessment program tests that are conducted to evaluate vehicle safety performance in side impacts. Factoring all of the multiple test configurations into the development of new vehicles requires advanced design capabilities based on a good understanding of the mechanisms producing dummy injury readings.
In recent years, advances in computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools and computer processing power have made it possible to run simulations of occupant restraint systems such as side airbags and seatbelts. Today, full vehicle simulations can be conducted to directly evaluate dummy injury readings. As a result, the use of full vehicle simulations facilitates more detailed analyses of the mechanisms producing dummy injury readings than what was possible before primarily due to various measurement limitations in vehicle crash tests.
In this study, full vehicle simulations and the Computer-Aided Principle (CAP), a mechanism analysis tool, were used to examine vehicle body and restraint system concepts for reducing dummy injury readings. This study focused on evaluations of the injury readings of driver-seat dummies under the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) side impact test conditions and the Side Impact New Car Assessment Program (SINCAP) test conditions. The results revealed that dummy injury readings were influenced by interactions between the vehicle body and restraint system characteristics, and that the same interactions affected dummy injury readings under the two sets of test conditions.