NCAP Star Rating and Safety of Rear Seat Occupant

ASME 2009 Summer Bioengineering Conference, Parts A and B ◽

10.1115/sbc2009-206582 ◽

2009 ◽

Author(s):

Elham Sahraei Esfahani ◽

Damoon Soudbakhsh ◽

Kennerly Digges

Keyword(s):

Rear Seat ◽

Star Rating ◽

Occupant Protection ◽

Front Passenger ◽

Assessment Program ◽

Hybrid Iii ◽

Male Hybrid ◽

Crash Tests ◽

General Safety

New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) gives star ratings to the vehicles based on their crashworthiness. The program uses results of crash tests performed with 50% male HYBRID III dummies in the driver and right front passenger seats and gives separate star ratings for the driver and right front passenger positions. These star ratings are available from the safer car website [1], and are perceived as an indicator of general safety of the vehicles for people trying to purchase a vehicle. A one-star rating would show the lowest, and five-star would be the highest safety ranking. As the NCAP star ratings of the vehicles have improved over years, front occupant protection has improved as well; however, recent studies have shown that rear occupants are less protected in newer model years of vehicles [2]. Safety of rear occupants is not evaluated with the NCAP program. In this paper an attempt is made to verify whether the NCAP scores can show the level of protection provided to the rear occupants or not.

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Quasi-Static and Dynamic Sled Testing of Prototype Commuter Rail Passenger Seats

IEEE/ASME/ASCE 2008 Joint Rail Conference ◽

10.1115/jrc2008-63051 ◽

2008 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kristine Severson ◽

A. Benjamin Perlman ◽

Richard Stringfellow

Keyword(s):

Public Transportation ◽

Dynamic Test ◽

Static Tests ◽

Occupant Protection ◽

Injury Criteria ◽

Commuter Rail ◽

Seat Cushions ◽

Hybrid Iii ◽

Male Hybrid ◽

Test Requirements

In support of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Railroad Equipment Safety Program, tests have been conducted on prototype commuter rail passenger seats which have been designed for improved occupant protection during commuter train accidents. Quasi-static tests were conducted to evaluate the moment versus rotation behavior of the seat back and to improve the fidelity of the finite element seat model. Dynamic sled tests were conducted with instrumented Hybrid III anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) to evaluate occupant protection under collision conditions and to improve the fidelity of seat/occupant computer models. The three-passenger prototype seats were designed to meet the following dynamic test requirements: 1. Seats must remain attached to the test fixture. 2. Occupants must be compartmentalized between seat rows. 3. Injury criteria for the head, chest, neck and femur must be within tolerance thresholds specified by the automotive industry. 4. All seat components, including seat cushions, must remain attached. Test conditions were specified for two dynamic sled tests as follows: three forward-facing 50th percentile male Hybrid III ATDs subjected to an 8G, 250 millisecond triangular crash pulse; and three rear-facing 50th percentile male Hybrid III ATDs subjected to a 12G, 250 millisecond triangular crash pulse. The 8G crash pulse is specified in the existing American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Standard for Row-to-Row Seating in Commuter Rail Cars [1] and in the Federal Code of Regulations 49 CFR 238.233 [2], and represents nominal collision conditions. The 12G crash pulse represents the collision environment measured in the cab car during a previous full-scale train-to-train impact test of passenger rail cars incorporating crash energy management [3, 4]. The final test results indicate that all test requirements were met: the seats remained attached to the test sled; the ATDs were compartmentalized; all the injury criteria were within accepted tolerance thresholds; and all the seat cushions remained attached.

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Crashworthiness Determination of Side Doors and B Pillar of a Vehicle Subjected to Pole Side Impact

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.663.552 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 663 ◽

pp. 552-556 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

A.H. Lilehkoohi ◽

A.A. Faieza ◽

B.B. Sahari ◽

A.A. Nuraini ◽

M. Halali

Keyword(s):

Impact Test ◽

Simulation Method ◽

Side Impact ◽

Occupant Protection ◽

Euro Ncap ◽

Assessment Program ◽

Static Object ◽

Object Based ◽

Crash Tests

Pole Side Impact Test is one out of three crash tests described by Euro NCAP standard for star rating of a vehicle and is required for assessing the Adult Occupant Protection. In this paper the goal is to determine the crashworthiness of side doors and B pillar in a Pole Side Impact Test based on Euro New Car Assessment Program (Euro-NCAP) using computer and simulation method. In this matter, a vehicle model has been prepared and meshed using Hypermesh and CATIA. The velocity of 29 km/h has been assigned to the vehicle which was on top of a cart while the pole has been assigned as a rigid static object based on Euro NCAP requirements specifically. Results show that different amounts of energy will be absorbed by each part, such as the side doors and the B pillar, and each part has a different effect on the crashworthiness of the vehicle in a Pole Side Impact Test. It can be concluded that to increase the amount of absorbed energy in a Pole Side Impact Test, the part which has more influence should be taken into greater consideration.

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Finite Element Modeling of Rollover Crash Tests with Hybrid III Dummies

SAE International Journal of Passenger Cars - Mechanical Systems ◽

10.4271/2008-01-1123 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 846-852 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Keith Friedman ◽

John Hutchinson ◽

Dennis Mihora

Keyword(s):

Finite Element ◽

Finite Element Modeling ◽

Element Modeling ◽

Hybrid Iii ◽

Rollover Crash ◽

Crash Tests

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Multidirection Validation of a Finite Element 50th Percentile Male Hybrid III Anthropomorphic Test Device for Spaceflight Applications

Journal of Biomechanical Engineering ◽

10.1115/1.4041906 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 141 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Derek A. Jones ◽

James P. Gaewsky ◽

Mona Saffarzadeh ◽

Jacob B. Putnam ◽

Ashley A. Weaver ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Finite Element ◽

Injury Risk ◽

Fe Model ◽

Fe Modeling ◽

Test Device ◽

Qualitative And Quantitative ◽

Hybrid Iii ◽

Physical Tests ◽

Quantitative Results ◽

Male Hybrid

The use of anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) for calculating injury risk of occupants in spaceflight scenarios is crucial for ensuring the safety of crewmembers. Finite element (FE) modeling of ATDs reduces cost and time in the design process. The objective of this study was to validate a Hybrid III ATD FE model using a multidirection test matrix for future spaceflight configurations. Twenty-five Hybrid III physical tests were simulated using a 50th percentile male Hybrid III FE model. The sled acceleration pulses were approximately half-sine shaped, and can be described as a combination of peak acceleration and time to reach peak (rise time). The range of peak accelerations was 10–20 G, and the rise times were 30–110 ms. Test directions were frontal (−GX), rear (GX), vertical (GZ), and lateral (GY). Simulation responses were compared to physical tests using the correlation and analysis (CORA) method. Correlations were very good to excellent and the order of best average response by direction was −GX (0.916±0.054), GZ (0.841±0.117), GX (0.792±0.145), and finally GY (0.775±0.078). Qualitative and quantitative results demonstrated the model replicated the physical ATD well and can be used for future spaceflight configuration modeling and simulation.

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Crash Tests and the Loads over Driver Head in Different Side Impact Cases

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.823.181 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 823 ◽

pp. 181-186 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nicolae Ispas ◽

Mircea Nastasoiu

Keyword(s):

Head Injury ◽

Real World ◽

Traffic Accidents ◽

Side Impact ◽

Passive Safety ◽

Occupant Safety ◽

The Real ◽

Occupant Protection ◽

Head Injury Criterion ◽

Crash Tests

Car occupant protection in traffic accidents is a key target of today cars manufacturers. Known as active or passive safety, many technological solutions were developing over the time for an actual better car’s occupant safety. In the real world, in traffic accidents are often involved cars from different generations with various safety historical solutions. The aims of these papers are to quantify the influences over the car driver head loads in cases of different generation of cars involved in side crashes. For each case the experimental load results can be future used to calculate Head Injury Criterion (HIC) [1]

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A Method for the Assessment of the Dynamic Performance of Neck Protection Devices

Volume 1: 15th International Conference on Advanced Vehicle Technologies; 10th International Conference on Design Education; 7th International Conference on Micro- and Nanosystems ◽

10.1115/detc2013-12921 ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Gianmarco Galmarini ◽

Massimiliano Gobbi ◽

Gianpiero Mastinu ◽

Giorgio Previati

Keyword(s):

Impact Load ◽

Dynamic Performance ◽

Head Injuries ◽

Test Procedure ◽

Neck Injury ◽

Multibody Model ◽

Hybrid Iii ◽

Protection Devices ◽

Male Hybrid ◽

The Impact

In this paper a method for the evaluation of the dynamic performance of neck protection devices for motorcyclists is presented. The research project involves both experimental and numerical activities. An impulsive load is applied to the head of a 50th percentile male Hybrid III dummy while wearing a helmet by means of a pendulum of calibrated mass starting from a well-defined initial condition. The impact load and the load at the neck of the dummy are measured by means of two six axes load cells. Additionally, head linear and rotational accelerations are measured. The test procedure shows a very good repeatability and allows for the comparison of the force passing through the neck with and without neck protection devices. Since neck protection devices should work in situations in which no relevant head injuries are present, the experimental parameters (pendulum mass and speed) are chosen to cause a high probability of injuries to the neck together with a low probability of damages to the head while wearing a standard helmet. Injury indices, found in the literature, have been used to determine the neck injury level. A multibody model of the human neck, developed in Matlab™ SimMechanics™, is validated by using the data acquired during the tests. A study of real-world crashes has allowed the identification of reference impact scenarios which have been simulated by using the multibody model. The validated model is suitable to determine the chance that a motorcyclist would have significant neck injury with or without a neck protecting device.

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