Seat and Airbag Design to Mitigate Frontal Crash Lower Limb Injuries

960503

02/01/1996

Event
International Congress & Exposition
Authors Abstract
Content
Although lower extremity injuries are not life threatening (AIS less than 4), they are very debilitating and require long periods of rehabilitation. A possible cause of the ankle/foot injury in frontal crashes is the foot dorsiflexion resulting from intrusion of the toeboard. Ankle injury on the driver side in the same type of crashes may also be caused by the foot eversion or inversion as it slides off the pedals. In both cases, it is believed that bracing the leg is a major contributor to the injury mechanism. Another contributor to lower extremity injuries is leg interaction with the instrument panel (IP).
This paper describes an activated seat design that acts to eliminate the interaction between the lower extremities and the vehicle interior. It also reduces the interaction between the legs and the IP by limiting the forward travel of the lower torso. Three different design approaches are presented in the paper. These approaches use either an airbag, pyrotechnic, or mechanical device, which acts in the seat cushion to then free the leg and foot from the intruding or reactive structure, and to minimize the travel of the lower torso into the IP.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/960503
Pages
8
Citation
Helleman, H., Brantman, R., and Nakhla, S., "Seat and Airbag Design to Mitigate Frontal Crash Lower Limb Injuries," SAE Technical Paper 960503, 1996, https://doi.org/10.4271/960503.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Feb 1, 1996
Product Code
960503
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English