Design and evaluation of an instrumented abdomen for the NHTSA advanced dummy

Rangarajan, N.; Shams, T.; White, Jr, R. P.; Zhao, You-Mei; Beach, D.; Haffner, Mark; Eppinger, R. E.; Digges, K. H.

A dummy abdomen consisting of two sections was designed as a part of an effort to upgrade the biofidelity and measurement capabilities of current generation frontal crash test dummies. The abdomen was designed to mimic the dynamic stiffness of the human abdomen under steering wheel, belt and airbag impacts in an automotive environment. Instrumentation capable of measuring the deformation of the dummy abdomen was also designed and integrated into the abdomen. This presentation will discuss the features of an abdomen and instrumentation system. In addition, tests conducted to evaluate the performance of the system will be described. Results of these tests will be presented. A number of design changes were instituted based on the results from static and dynamic tests. These design changes will be described.

Year

Entry

1985

Stalnaker RL, Ulman MS. Abdominal trauma: review, response, and criteria. In: Proceedings of the 29th Stapp Car Crash Conference. October 9-11, 1985; Washington, DC. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:1-16. SAE 851720.

1994

Ishiyama S-i, Tsukada K, Nishigaki H, Ikeda Y, Sakuma S, Matsuoka F, Kanno Y, Hayashi S. Development of an abdominal deformation measuring system for Hybrid III dummy. In: Proceedings of the 38th Stapp Car Crash Conference. October 31–November 2, 1994; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:265-279. SAE 942223.

1989

Miller MA. The biomechanical response of the lower abdomen to belt restraint loading. J Trauma. November 1989;29(11):1571-1584.

1989

Rouhana SW, Viano DC, Jedrzejczak EA, McCleary JD. Assessing submarining and abdominal injury risk in the Hybrid III family of dummies. In: Proceedings of the 33rd Stapp Car Crash Conference. October 4-6, 1989; Washington, DC. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:257-279. SAE 892440.

1985

Nusholtz GS, Kaiker PS, Huelke DF, Suggitt BR. Thoraco-abdominal response to steering wheel impacts. In: Proceedings of the 29th Stapp Car Crash Conference. October 9-11, 1985; Washington, DC. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:221-267. SAE 851737.