Comparison of D-Plane Measurement Methods for the Hybrid III Small Female Neck Flexion Test

This study by the Anthropomorphic test device Certification Research group (ACR) takes a new look at dummy neck rotation measurement methods. The authors' previous SAE Congress paper, Watters et al., 2005, focused on comparing three different rotary pot measurement systems in the same Hybrid III 5^th Female neck flexion test at a single laboratory [1]. Differences between the pot systems, and between the pot systems and video analysis of the head rotation, were found to be a significant component of the observed test variation. The 2005 rotary potentiometer study used a modified head known as the Nine Accelerometer Array Head (NAAH). The NAAH data for rotation about the Y-axis, only recently analyzed, showed exceptional agreement with the video analysis as compared to the rotary potentiometer data.

This new series of 5^th Female neck flexion tests has been conducted using four rotation measurement methods simultaneously: 1) one of the previously- tested conventional rotary potentiometer systems, 2) the NAAH, 3) video analysis, and 4) gyro measurement. A comparison of the four rotation measurement methods is presented.