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A comparison of volunteers and dummy upper torso kinematics with and without shoulder belt slack in a low speed side/pre-roll environment.

Parenteau C

Delphi Corporation, Troy, Michigan, USA. Chantal.S.Parenteau@delphi.com

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to compare the occupant and dummy kinematics in a low-speed lateral environment with and without shoulder belt slack. METHODS: A buck of a small European car was mounted on a side impact sled. The parameters evaluated were pulses, sitting location, and belt slack. A total of 24 tests were carried out. Three 50th-percentile male volunteers and one Hybrid III 50th-percentile male were tested. The pulses consisted of Pulse 1:+/- 0.7 g's pulse and Pulse 2: a -0.9 g pulse to simulate low-speed pre-roll/side events. Both pulses had a duration of 500 msec. RESULTS: The peak lateral head excursion was higher in the far-side occupants than in the near-side occupants. Furthermore, for the far-side volunteers, lateral head displacements were lower in the no-slack condition than in the slack condition, at 388 +/- 64 mm and 455 +/- 84 mm respectively for Pulse 1 and at 138 +/- 2 mm and 207 +/- 70 mm for Pulse 2. The timing required to reach peak lateral displacement was higher in Pulse 1 than in Pulse 2. In comparison to the volunteers, the Hybrid III dummy lateral motion was lower. The peak lateral displacement in Pulse 1 was 231 mm with slack and 194 mm without and 98 mm and 107 mm for Pulse 2, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained in this study indicate that removing seatbelt slack would be more beneficial for far-sided occupants than near-sided. They also point to the lack of biofidelity of the Hybrid III dummy in low g lateral pulses.

Published 20 July 2006 in Traffic Inj Prev, 7(2): 155-63.
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