The Test Device for Human Occupant Restraint (THOR) is an advanced crash test
dummy designed for frontal impact. Originally released in a 50th
percentile male version (THOR-50M), a female 5th version (THOR-05F)
was prototyped in 2017 (Wang et al., 2017) and compared with biofidelity sub-system tests (Wang et al., 2018). The same year, Trosseille et al.
(2018) published response corridors
using nine 5th percentile female Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) tested in
three sled configurations, including both submarining and non-submarining
cases.
The goal of this paper is to provide an initial evaluation of the THOR-05F
biofidelity in a full-scale sled test, by comparing its response with the PMHS
corridors published by Trosseille et al. (2018).
Significant similarities between PMHS and THOR-05F were observed: as in
Trosseille et al. (2018), the THOR-05F did
not submarine in configuration 1, and submarined in configurations 2 and 3. The
lap belt tension and seat forces were similar in magnitude. For configurations 2
and 3, the pelvis excursions were of the same order of magnitude between both
human surrogates. However, significant differences were also observed: compared
to the PMHS, the THOR-05F showed shoulder belt forces that were 1.6 to 2.1 times
higher in magnitude, and lap belt force time histories that were delayed by 10
to 20 ms. In configuration 1, the chest and pelvis resultant accelerations of
the dummy were delayed as well, and the pelvis excursion and rotation more than
doubled that of the PMHS.