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Improving the safety of vehicle occupants has gained increasing attention among automotive manufacturers and researchers over the past three decades. Generally, more recent vehicle safety improvement and injury prevention techniques could benefit from accurate knowledge of the occupant presence, characteristics, and/or position within the interior space of the vehicle. There is increased potential for injury mitigation systems to be applied more effectively if the proximity of the occupant to restraint devices is obtained in real-time during vehicle operation. A particular application is the position of the head relative to the head restraint for mitigating neck injuries from rear end impacts, which has led to the development of “active” head restraint systems.

In this paper, the authors review damage mechanisms and failure modes of bonded composite repairs applied to aluminum aircraft structures, with a focus on the effects of bending on the performance of asymmetric or one-sided repairs. Failure mechanisms are elucidated using results from testing carried out during the course of the University of British Columbia Bonded Composite Repair Program (UBC-BCRP). The authors then outline the regulatory requirements for damage tolerance and describe the new methods and test data developed under the UBC-BCRP to improve the analysis of bending repairs.