Refine Your Search

Search Results

Technical Paper

Human Occupant Motion in Rear-End Impacts: Effects of Incremental Increases in Velocity Change

2001-03-05
2001-01-0899
Interest in the mitigation of whiplash associated disorders (WAD) has increased in priority over the last 10 years, and an increasing number of human subject rear-end collision tests have been conducted to assist in the understanding of WAD. Traditionally this testing has examined the effects of variations in occupant characteristics (age, height, gender, etc.), seat characteristics (geometrical and constitutive), and impact severity. This data has resulted in advancements in the understanding of WAD and has provided occupant performance corridors at specific velocity changes, however no controlled study has examined the singular effect of incremental velocity change increases on occupant kinematics. Moreover, while vehicle velocity change is typically employed as a singular measure of impact severity, it is of interest to examine whether this or other impact-related parameters, such as energy or acceleration, are also correlated with occupant kinematics.
X