Headform Impact Safety Design Through Simulation and Testing

Crash safety is a changing area in which safety requirements are updated or added from time to time. A relatively recent federal safety requirement is the amended FMVSS 201 rule for upper interior head impact. The automotive crash safety engineer faces many challenges in designing for this safety criterion. In the current study, it is shown how finite element-based simulation can be used as an effective tool in the design of lightweight headform impact protection countermeasures, supplemented with selective laboratory testing. Additionally, judicious employment of component finite element models and laboratory tests before a new countermeasure concept is deployed in a full vehicle environment leads to robustness and efficiency in product development.