A Comparison of the Head and Neck Injury Parameters on a TNO P3 and a Three-year-old Hybrid III Child Dummies From Numerical Simulations 2005-01-1303

This study focuses on the behaviour of child dummies, namely a 3-year-old Hybrid III and a TNO P3, in terms of head and neck injury potential in forward and rearward facing child safety seats in frontal vehicle crash. Numerical simulations were conducted using a moderate acceleration pulse acquired from the National Transportation Biomechanics Research Center database with a closing speed of 41 km/h. A finite element model incorporating a three-year-old Hybrid III dummy, in a five-point convertible child safety seat was developed and the prescribed acceleration pulse was simulated using LS-DYNA. A multi-body dynamic simulation, utilizing the identical acceleration pulse, was completed for the three-year-old P3 dummy in a four-point convertible child safety seat using MADYMO. Similarities and differences were noted in the numerical observations for both the P3 and Hybrid III dummies which are presented within the paper. Peak values of the neck injury criteria, calculated from observations from the upper neck load cell in the forward facing configurations, for both the Hybrid III and P3 dummies were approximately 0.5. Values of the head injury criteria, calculated using a window of 15 ms, ranged from 20 to 70. For both the child dummies, neck and head injury criteria values were substantially reduced for the rearward facing configurations when compared with the forward facing results.