Comparison of Biofidelic Responses to Rear Impact of the Head/Neck/Torso among Human Volunteers, PMHS, and Dummies

Several methods of rear impact test to reduce neck injuries in rear-end real world collisions have been suggested so far. One typical test method is a dynamic test similar to actual low-speed rear impacts. This study aims to evaluate the biofidelity of BioRID-II, RID 2, Hybrid-III, Thor-NT, and Thor-FT dummies on the basis of the responses of head/neck/torso in order to identify the most suitable dummy for the dynamic test simulating low-speed rear impacts. Currently Hybrid-III developed for high-speed frontal impacts is a candidate for the low-speed rear impact test. Also, Thor-NT and Thor-FT are the next generation frontal impact dummies. Therefore, the evaluation on the potentials of Thor-NT and Thor-FT as dummies for low-speed rear impact tests is also included. Two series of tests were conducted in order to evaluate the biofidelity of the dummies. One, a Mini- Sled Test simulating low-speed rear impacts, was conducted at a low acceleration level with an impact velocity of 8 km/h in order to avoid the risk of injury to human volunteers. The other was a Back Impact Test to identify dummy responses at higher impact level than that of the Mini-Sled Test. If dummy characteristics differ, it is likely that even if tests are carried out under the same conditions, the impact responses would vary and the evaluation results would differ. Therefore, a HYGE Sled Test was conducted in order to clarify the response differences of the five types of dummies in the dynamic test that was proposed to evaluate car seats. From the test results, the response differences of the five types of dummies were clearly observed. As for the low-speed rear impact, the responses of BioRID-II were the most similar to those of both human volunteers and PMHS (Post Mortem Human Subjects). Biofidelity of RID 2 was not so good compared to BioRID-II. On the other hand, biofidelity of Hybrid-III was relatively poor and biofidelity of the two Thor dummies were almost the same as that of the Hybrid-III. It is concluded that among the five dummies, BioRID-II is the most suitable for the evaluation of low-speed rear impacts. For the covering abstract see ITRD E141569.