Assessing chest injuries for different pitch angles and drop heights rollovers using strengthened roof

Tahan, Fadi J.; Digges, Kennerly; Kan, Cing‐Dao (Steve); Grzebieta, Raphael; Bambach, Mike

Affiliations

¹Center for Collision Safety and Analysis, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

²National Crash Analysis Center, George Washington University, Virginia, USA

³Transport and Road Safety Research, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Abstract

This research addresses selected rollover initial conditions in order to study one complete (4 quarter‐turn) rollover that would lead to chest injuries for belted occupants. Chest injuries correspond to about one third of belted AIS 3+ injuries of rollover crashes.

Two variables, the drop height and pitch angle, were chosen to vary from previous research values while the remaining rollover initial conditions were kept the same. The Ford Explorer and the 50th percentile male Hybrid III FE models were used. The vehicle roof was strengthened to reduce high crush tolerances while supplementary outputs were requested in order to evaluate thoracic injuries from dummy impact with the vehicle interior components during the 3rd and 4th quarter‐turn.

Simulation sensitivity study of 9 different vehicle initial conditions show the Hybrid III dummy chest loading at the third quarter‐turns does not result in high contact forces as was anticipated. The overall dummy motion is restricted by the (stiff) neck behavior during the contact between the head and roof. Despite these behaviors, the Hybrid III confirms the possible timing and location of injury causes from a typical rollover. In order to evaluate the extent of injuries, a different dummy should be investigated for rollover crash purposes.

Links

URL: http://www.ircobi.org/downloads/irc14/pdf_files/12.pdf

Cited Works (4)

Year	Entry
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