Search Results

A new approach has been developed to facilitate the measurement of head angular acceleration in automobile crash tests. It consists of two parts: an array of 12 linear accelerometers mounted in a Hybrid III dummy head and an electronic signal processor mounted on the dummy spine. The accelerometer outputs are led to conventional data acquisition equipment and also to the signal processor which digitizes the raw acceleration signals, stores them, and computes the 3-D angular acceleration. This acceleration and the 3-D linear acceleration of the head c.g. are available in real time or post test. The equipment has been evaluated on a mini-sled, with various configurations of head loading and kinematics, and also in Hyge sled tests performed at 40 km/h with a 3 point belted Hybrid III dummy. The angular accelerations returned by the signal processor in both test settings corresponded closely to those computed off-line from the raw data.

CRASH RECORDER FOR SAFETY SYSTEM STUDIES AND AS A CONSUMER'S PRODUCT - This paper first describes a joint development project between Mannesmann Kienzle GmbH and VOLVO Car Corporation regarding an advanced Crash Recorder (CR) to be installed in the vehicle test fleet by VOLVO. The objective of the project is mainly to gain experience concerning the correlation between crash severity, vehicle damage and bodily injuries of the occupants by getting access to extensive and accurate in-vehicle data from reallife accidents. The Crash Recorder monitors and records a number of variables during the phases of pre-impact, impact and postimpact. Parallel to this device a low-cost consumer's device has been developed by Mannesmann Kienzle and the full concept of this device will be presented. The objective of this low-cost Accident Data Recorder (ADR) is to provide a qualified in-vehicle monitoring system providing vehicle trajectories data for direct use in computeraided accident reconstruction.

This paper summarizes the development of an Instrumented faceform which can record time histories of impact-related pressures at fifty-two locations over the entire face of a Hybrid 2 crash dummy skull. Pressures are measured by using piezo-electric, thin-plastic films; a high-speed, multiplex data acquisition system; signal conditioning; a software-controlled computerized data reduction and recording scheme; and a submergence calibration technique. The construction of the modified dummy face and the calibration gear are discussed. Examples of preliminary laboratory impact test results are presented. Theory and techniques relating to signal processing software, microprocessor controlled random-access-memory data-retrieval system and system calibration are also discussed. It is hoped that this tool, now undergoing final development and verification testing, will find extensive use in the evaluation and safety-related design of vehicle interiors and occupant restraints.

Safety specifications can be expressed by Market Requirements which describe a performance that any car has to surpass. Alternatively there are the Engineering Specifications which describe average performance for engineering and laboratory testing. A statistical procedure used for translation of the Market Requirements to the Engineering Specifications is described. It is a combination of engineering judgement and frequency distribution graphs, with confidence limits included. The procedure has been successfully used in design work on Volvo cars. Potential improvement areas of the method are listed. The method should be applicable to many products with narrow tolerances between Market Requirements and average product performance,