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The ability to extract and evaluate the time history of structural deformations or crush during vehicle crashes represents a significant challenge to automotive safety researchers. Current methods are limited by the use of electro-mechanical devices such as string pots and/or linear variable displacement transducers (LVDT). Typically, one end of the transducer must be mounted to a point on the structure that will remain un-deformed during the event; the other end is then attached to the point on the structure where the deformation is to be measured. This approach measures the change in distance between these two points and is unable to resolve any movement into its respective X, Y, or Z directions. Also, the accuracy of electro-mechanical transducers is limited by their dynamic response to crash conditions. The photogrammetry technique has been used successfully in a wide variety of applications including aerial surveying, civil engineering and documentation of traffic accidents.

Keeping in view the current on-going developments in the field of automobile restraint systems, the advent of additional regulatory requirements for occupant protection has driven the development of a new generation of inflatable seat belt restraint system (IRS). Such a device has been developed for vehicle and integrated structural seat mounted applications. During the development of the IRS it became evident that a minimum performance specification for the inflatable assembly portion of the system was in order, such that the overall effectiveness could be measured prior to its introduction into the market place.

This study examines the added safety improvement effects of the Integrated (Belted) Structural Seat (ISS™) combined with an inflatable shoulder belt that inflates to form a cylindrical airbag during an automobile frontal crash. Although inflatable shoulder belts have been studied for many years with proven results, occupant impact response data and sled testing has been very limited to date when combining these two relatively new types of automotive safety systems. Accident studies show that frontal collisions, are by far the crashes with the most serious consequences. In frontal collisions, the main lesions placed upon the occupants are thoracic, mainly high chest deceleration, head injuries which result from the high deceleration levels due to occupant’s contact with the vehicle interiors, and rib fractures resulting from the high seat belt contact forces.