The effect of limiting shoulder belt load with air bag restraint

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Mertz, Harold J.¹; Williamson, James E.¹; Vander Lugt, Donald A.¹

The effect of limiting shoulder belt load with air bag restraint

Proceedings of the SAE International Congress & Exposition

©1995 Society ot Automotive Engineers, Inc.

Affiliations

¹General Motors Corp.
Abstract

The dilemma of using a shoulder belt force limiter with a 3-point belt system is selecting a limit load that will balance the reduced risk of significant thoracic injury due to the shoulder belt loading of the chest against the increased risk of significant head injury due to the greater upper torso motion allowed by the shoulder belt load limiter. However, with the use of air bags, this dilemma is more manageable since it only occurs for non-deploy accidents where the risk of significant head injury is low even for the unbelted occupant. A study was done using a validated occupant dynamics model of the Hybrid III dummy to investigate the effects that a prescribed set of shoulder belt force limits had on head and thoracic responses for 48 and 56 km/h barrier simulations with driver air bag deployment and for threshold crash severity simulations with no air bag deployment. For the belt/bag/occupant configuration that was evaluated, the analysis gives an optimum shoulder belt load limit that minimizes the dummy responses in the 56 km/h simulation without significantly increasing the risk of significant head injury in the non-deploy simulations.
Links

DOI: 10.4271/950886

SAE: 950886

Cited Works (4)

Year	Entry
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Cited By (19)

Year	Entry
1995	Bernat AR. "Smart" safety belts for injury reduction. In: 39th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 16-18, 1995; Chicago, IL.567-576.
1995	Miller HJ. Injury reduction with smart restraint systems. In: 39th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 16-18, 1995; Chicago, IL.527-541.
2001	Sieveka EM, Kent RW, Crandall JR. Comparison of seat belt force-limiting methods using the MADYMO multi-body/finite element program. In: 45th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 24-26, 2001; San Antonio, TX.
1996	Gupta V, Menon R, Gupta S, Mani A, Shanmugavelu I, Kossar J. Improved occupant protection through advanced seat design. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.181-191.
1996	Kallieris D, Rizzetti A, Wirên Bv, Mattern R. The influence of force limiter to the injury severity by using a 3-point belt and driver air bag in frontal collisions. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.456-464.
1996	Van Voorhies KL, Narwani G. Optimization of an intelligent total restraint system. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.465-477.
1996	Morgan RM, Eppinger RH, Kuppa SM, Taylor LM. Thoracic trauma assessment for the Hybrid III dummy in simulated frontal crashes. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 13-16, 1996; Melbourne, Australia.1605-1621.
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2019	Forman J, Acosta SM, Bollapragada V, Gepner B, Wernicke P. Comparing restraint system sensitivity between the THOR and the Hybrid III, and potential implications in restraint optimization. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 10-13, 2019; Eindhoven, Netherlands.
2013	Kitagawa Y, Yasuki T. Correlation among seatbelt load, chest deflection, rib fracture and internal organ strain in frontal collisions with human body finite element models. In: Proceedings of the 2013 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 11-13, 2013; Gothenburg, Sweden.282-316.
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2007	Mertz HJ, Dalmotas DJ. Effects of shoulder belt limit forces on adult thoracic protection in frontal collisions. Stapp Car Crash J. 2007;51:361-380. SAE 2007-22-0015.
1997	Crandall JR, Bass CR, Pilkey WD, Miller HJ, Sikorski J, Wilkins M. Thoracic response and injury with belt, driver side airbag, and force limited belt restraint systems. Int J Crashworthiness. 1997;2(1):119-132.
2010	Viano DC, Parenteau CS. Severe injury to near- and far-seated occupants in side impacts by crash severity and belt use. Traffic Inj Prev. 2010;11(1):69-78.
2016	Nie B, Poulard D, Subit D, Donlon J-P, Forman JL, Kent RW. Experimental investigation of the effect of occupant characteristics on contemporary seat belt payout behavior in frontal impacts. Traffic Inj Prev. May 18, 2016;17(4):374-380.
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