Investigations into the rib strain measurements as a basis for injury criteria on the THOR-NT dummy

Lecuyer, Erwan; Dubois, Denis; Song, Eric; Trosseille, Xavier

Abstract

This paper presents the results from a study performed in the framework of the European project THORAX. The objective of the study is to develop a new thoracic injury criterion based on the THOR-NT dummy rib deformations.

Rib fractures were found to be strongly related to rib strains on PMHS in hub and airbag loading tests (Trosseille et al., 2008). The strain measurements on the ribs of the THOR dummy could then be a good basis for a thoracic injury criterion.

In order to confirm this hypothesis, the field of PMHS testing was enlarged by including belt and harness loading tests. Then, hub, airbag, belt and harness PMHS tests were duplicated on a THOR-NT equipped with 140 strain gages on the ribs. Finally, the PMHS strain patterns were compared to the THOR-NT strain patterns to evaluate if this instrumentation could be used for the development of an injury criterion.

This paper presents the first observations made from the comparison of the rib strain patterns of the PMHS tests with those found in the paired THOR-NT tests and gives some perspectives about the use of this instrumentation in the development of a thoracic injury criterion.

Links

URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/bio/proceedings/2010_38/38-11.pdf

Cited Works (1)

Year	Entry
2008	Trosseille X, Baudrit P, Leport T, Vallancien G. Rib cage strain pattern as a function of chest loading configuration. Stapp Car Crash J. 2008;52:205-231. SAE 2008-22-0009.