Search Results

The relative performances are provided for many of the forms of motorist restraining devices evaluated during 139 full scale crash tests conducted over a 20 year period at UCLA. The relative advantages of passive and active restraining devices are described. Some new concepts of passive restraints are illustrated.

The research techniques of instrumented full-scale collision experiments were applied to evaluate relative crash performances of smaller passenger vehicles colliding with larger vehicles. The larger vehicle weighed from 1.5-4 times as much as the smaller vehicle. The structure-overriding tendencies of larger vehicles in a particular collision were found to greatly influence the severity of exposure to injury for occupants of the smaller vehicle; relative strength of structures was similarly important. The crash safety of a motorist is shown to depend more on the use of adequate restraining devices than on the smallness of his car. Mismatched sizes of vehicles were crashed head-on, as well as in rear-end and intersection-type exposures. Analytical relationships of post-impact displacements as well as transducer and photographic instrumentation data are presented. Actual accident investigations were conducted which provided background preparation for this series of crash tests.

Collision performance of automotive seat systems has been a subject of inquiry since crash research was in its infancy. However, when federal standards were initiated in 1968 regarding seat system performance, they became the baseline for automotive design, and later became the topic of numerous debates in terms of occupant crash force and energy management. This subject of energy management as it relates to seat design has been extended and expanded in the current time period. This paper will discuss current design trends in automotive seat design collision performance in terms of new data recently becoming available. Also, due to recent proposals and discussion regarding modification of FMVSS 207, a review of seatback performance data in a dynamic environment will be presented. Any proposals regarding the modification of FMVSS 207 require careful evaluation and quantification of seat system goals.