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The paper reports the results of a project investigating means to predict injury risk created by impacting airbags on eyeballs healed after radial keratotomy surgery. In the first phase of the project, a finite element model of an intact eyeball was prepared. Due of the lack of experimental data to calibrate biomechanical models, the model was validated for impact loading using a series of clinical observations related to perforations of the eyeball by small debris from industrial machines. Typical impacts were simulated over the range of observations and the critical dimensions of impacting debris perforating the cornea and the sclera, as observed clinically, were properly predicted numerically. In the second phase, the model of the intact eyeball was altered to introduce radial keratotomy scars. The simulation of impacting airbag were used to determine the loading on the eye and assess the injury risks based on the strains in the eye tissues.

The paper describes an engineering project carried out to optimize the crashworthiness of an existing passenger car for frontal crash using a procedure relying on numerical simulation. An optimization target is defined in terms of an ideal acceleration pulse at the seats anchors. The acceleration time history and structural members are scanned in parallel to correlate the local acceleration peaks to specific structural members. Members details are iteratively modified in order to alter the accelerations and get closer to the target.