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The Isodamp damping material (also known as Navy Damp) used in the ribs of current crash test dummies provides human-like damping to the thorax under impact. However, the range of temperature over which it can be used is very small. A new rib design using laminates of steel, fiberglass, and commercially available viscoelastic material has been constructed. Load-deflection response and hysteresis of the laminated ribs were compared with corresponding conventional ribs fabricated from steel and Isodamp. Impact tests were conducted on laminated and conventional ribs at 18.5° C, 22.2° C and 26.6° C. Results indicate that the response of the laminated ribs is essentially the same as that of the ribs with Isodamp at 22.2° C, which is the operating temperature of the conventional ribs. The variation in the impact response of the newly developed laminated ribs in the temperature range of 18.5° C to 26.6° C was less than 10%.

A new pedestrian dummy, called ""POLAR'' has been recently developed. It can be used as a tool not only for the investigation of the mechanism of pedestrian accidents, but also for the assessment of vehicle aggressiveness to pedestrians. This dummy is modified from "'THOR,'' new- generation occupant dummy, in its body structure to reproduce human body kinematics in the event of collision with a vehicle more precisely. Its knee has a human-like structure, with condyles which shape is similar to that of human knee, meniscus, cruciate ligaments and collateral ligaments. Tibias of Polar are made of urethane which bending characteristic is that of human tibia. These features not only make the lateral bending and shearing responses of the leg and knee more human-like but also the whole body kinematics more human- like.