For investigating the safety of passengers impacting windshields, above all in test series in the development of new glass constructions, the phantom test is practically indispensable. But since the evaluation values for internal safety-head acceleration and lacerations-can only be properly measured when the movement carried out at impact is realistic, the tests must be carried out at the impact angles occurring in motor vehicles.
The results of the phantom test depend largely on the construction of the phantom head. Due to the use of phantom heads of varying construction (because of lack of test regulations), the results of the individual testing installations frequently deviate from one another. In a test series with HPR safety glass (2.0/2.8/0.76 mm flat panes of 24 x 36 in), the effect of several parameters (head mass and head spring suspension, head freely movable or head guided on evaluation values for resultant head acceleration, Severity Index, Head Impact Criterion, tolerance value, and Laceration index) was investigated. The test series were carried out at impact angles of α = 45, 60, and 90 deg at rates of 20-50 km/h.
The results, supplemented by motion analysis of the impact process, were compared to the results of sled tests with test dummies previously been used by other testing installations on similar glass constructions and under comparable test conditions.