Regarding THOR-50AM dummy lower extremities1) (hereafter referred to as "THOR" and "THOR-LX") developed as an assembly of lower extremities for next generation dummies in frontal impact test, we have conducted a series of tests as follows. HYGE sled tests with a toe-board simulating the impact upon intrusion into the vehicle compartment around the occupant feet, dummy dropping tests with two different postures; one is the upright posture with the knees set straight and another is the posture with the knees bent, in order to apply impact loads and to measure/evaluate the impact response characteristics. The main findings obtained through the above are as follows.
- HYGE Sled Tests
- In the same impact conditions, some differences are seen by the polarity and values of tibia moment between THOR-LX and Hybrid III-50 AM dummy lower extremities (hereafter referred to as "HyIII" and "HyIIILX").
- When the floor displacement rate and/or toe-board rotation angle are increased, the ankles of HyIII-LX are locked up by dorsiflexion which affects the values measured with the tibia load gauges, whereas such an effect is absent with THOR-LX.
- The values measured with the tibia load gauges roughly correspond with the floor/toe-board motion for THOR-LX, but the values of HyIII-LX sometimes do not correspond with the toe-board motion.
- Dummy Dropping Tests
- Values of tibia axial force of THOR-LX are closer to those obtained with the volunteers (University of Heidelberg data), while those of HyIII-LX are greater.
- Due to differences in tibia-knee and tibia-ankle fitting locations, the values of tibia moment of HyIII-LX with inclined tibia axis become greater than those of THORLX with practically vertical tibia axis.
- Due to differences in structures of legs, ankles and feet, the pelvis acceleration peak timing with HyIII-LX is earlier than that of THOR-LX in each one of the dummy postures, and the interval from the pelvis acceleration peak timing to the tibia load peak timing is shorter with HyIIILX.