Comparison of two promising side impact dummies

Morgan, Richard M.; Waters, Hal P.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Rulemaking Plan gives heavy emphasis to an upgrade of side impact protection. A key element of this plan is the development of an anthropomorphic dummy for use in conjunction with an injury performance level.

Two advanced dummy designs, whose design specifications are based upon biomechanical data, are candidates to be used for this rulemaking. They are (1) a Side Impact Dummy (SID) designed by the Highway Safety Research Institute (HSRI) and (2) the Association Peugeot-Renault (APR) dummy from France.

In this paper, these two candidate dummy designs are compared in side impact sled and pendulum tests. Each dummy is exposed to a total of six unique sled/pendulum tests. The tests are chosen for use in evaluating biolidelity, repeatability, impact strength, and dummy/padding interaction. There are two levels of comparison for the dummies. First, the raw accelerometer response is processed for comparison with similarly processed cadaver data from identical impact conditions.

Secondly, using side impact injury criteria —including the B parameter and average power— the injury as predicted by the two dummies is matched with the average injury of cadavers in identical impact environments. In working with the different injury predictive mnodels, the authors present a method of showing that a B parameter performance level of less than 6.8 (for the impacted side upper rib) limits the AIS value to under 4.

Year

Entry

1978

Eppinger RH, Augustyn K, Robbins DH. Development of a promising universal thoracic trauma prediction methodology. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Stapp Car Crash Conference. October 24-26, 1978; Ann Arobor, MI. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:211-268. SAE 780891.

Year

Entry

1984

Eppinger RH, Marcus JH, Morgan RM. Development of dummy and injury index for NHTSA’s thoracic side impact protection research program. In: Proceedings of the SAE Government/industry Meeting & Exposition. May 21-24, 1984; Washington, DC. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE 840885.

1984

Hackney JR, Monk MW, Hollowell WT, Sullivan LK, Willke DT. Results of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's thoracic side impact protection research program. In: Proceedings of the SAE Government/industry Meeting & Exposition. May 21-24, 1984; Washington, DC. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers. SAE 840886.

2009

Hallman JJ, Brasel KJ, Yoganandan N, Pintar FA. Splenic trauma as an adverse effect of torso-protecting side airbags: biomechanical and case evidence. In: 53rd Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 5-7, 2009; Baltimore, MD.13-24.