Development of a side facing seat and seat belt system for the Australian Army Perentie 4×4

The survivability of soldiers in the rear of military vehicles when involved in a crash has been identified as an area of major concern. The Australian Army via Project TRANSAFE has developed and evaluated a range of side facing Seat and Seat Belt Systems (SSBS) for the Perentie 4x4 to improve crash survivability. Options which have been evaluated include; bench seat with lap seat belt, bench seat with lap sash seat belt, individual seat with harness, wooden seat with lap sash seat belt and a plastic seat with lap sash seat belt. Tests were conducted on isolated single seating systems and on multiple seating systems simulating the internal structure of the Perentie 4x4. Wooden and plastic prototype SSBS demonstrated a low probability for life threatening head, neck and chest injuries while the bench seat options and individual seat and harness SSBS have a high probability of serious, if not life threatening, head, neck and chest injuries. A set of three-dimensional MADYMO models were also developed and validated, simulating the SSBS with seated 50th percentile Hybrid Ill dummies subjected to a mid-severity crash pulse. The dummy kinematics and injury parameters from the simulation were compared to tests and fairly good agreement was found.