Responses of the Q3, Hybrid III and a Three Year Old Child Finite Element Model Under a Simulated 213 Test

This research focuses on the response of the Q3, Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy and a child finite element model in a simulated 213 sled test. The Q3 and Hybrid III 3-year old child finite element models were developed by First Technology Safety Systems. The 3-year-old child finite element model was developed by Nagoya University by model-based scaling from the AM50 (50 percentile male) total human model for safety. The child models were positioned in a forward facing, five-point child restraint system using Finite Element Model Builder. An acceleration pulse acquired from an experimental 213 sled test, which was completed following the guidelines outlined in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213 using a Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy, was applied to the seat buck supporting the child restraint seat. The numerical simulations utilizing the Q3, Hybrid III 3-year-old and the child finite element model were conducted using the explicit non-linear finite element code LS-DYNA. The main objective of this paper is to present the response behaviour of the child dummies in terms of head and neck injury potential in a simulated 213 test. Peak values of the neck injury criteria, calculated at the upper neck load cell for the Q3 and Hybrid III child dummies were approximately 1.21 and 0.96 respectively. Values for the head injury criteria, calculated using a 36 ms window, were observed to be 272 for the Hybrid III dummy, 260 for the child FE model and 337 for the Q3 child dummy.