Numerous cadaver tests have been performed in the past to define the behaviour and tolerance of the thorax under side impact conditions. To take into account the various test conditions and measurements techniques or parameters, a lumped parameter model is used to reproduce these tests and thus to compute the protection criteria in the same way. The correlation between the calculated criteria and the observed injuries is then analysed as a basis for discussion of their consistency and relevance.
The second part of the paper deals with the transposition of tolerance criteria to the Eurosid 1 dummy, using simulation tests under different conditions (impactor test, free-fall test, imposed velocity). The results show that this transposition depends on the test conditions, because of the limited biofidelity of the Eurosid 1 dummy.