Crash Testing of Humans in Automobile Seats * 700361

The design of the automobile interior is largely based upon design data gathered under static conditions, where the inertial properties of the human body do not enter into consideration. Anthropometric data based on static measurements are valid for design of clearance and access for normal operation of the vehicle, and have been widely collected and used for these purposes. The requirements of the human operator or passenger during a crash are not as well documented. Clearances, paths of travel, velocities along the path and other dynamic data are of vital interest to the designer. Because of the difficulties in obtaining information about humans under crash conditions, most of the available guidelines are based upon dummy or cadaver tests. Until adequate human data are available, the designer must use the information obtained from human simulators and consider it only an unconfirmed approximation.

To alleviate this shortage of human impact data, the National Bureau of Standards initiated a research program in cooperation with the 6571st Aeromedical Research Laboratory. Tests were conducted on the Daisy Decelerator at Holloman AFB to gather comparative data about human and dummy test subjects under crash conditions using automotive seating and restraint systems. The data presented in this report include 32 human tests of controlled impacts of approximately the same magnitude. Variables are the type of restraint, either lap belt or lap belt plus single diagonal, and subject size. All tests were conducted in the -Gx orientation using a production automobile bucket seat. Data presented include the displacement paths of the subjects during the impact, the maximum velocity along the path, anthropometric data, loads generated in the restraint system, and medical and subjective evaluation of the impacts.