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A new form of head and neck protection for racing car drivers is examined. The concept is one whereby the helmet portion of the system is attached, by way of a quick release clamp, to a collar-like platform which is supported on the driver's shoulders. The collar, which encircles the back and sides of the driver's neck, is held in place by way of the on-board restraint belts. The interior of the helmet portion of the assembly is large enough to provide adequate volitional head motion. The overall objective of the design is to remove the helmet from the wearer's head and thereby to mitigate the deleterious features of helmet wearing such as neck fatigue, poor ventilation and aerodynamic buffeting. Just as importantly, by transferring the weight of the helmet and all attendant reaction forces associated with inertial and impact loads to the shoulder complex (instead of to the neck), reduced head and neck injury probability should be achievable.

Current state of the art in Anthropometric Test Device (ATD) headform development does not include biofidelity of the mandible and the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). In order to investigate the protective aspects of mouth guards in relation to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) potential, a headform with an articulating mandible has been developed. The headform is based upon the 50% male Hybrid III and has a steel mandible with steel upper and lower dentition and a compliant TMJ structure. The headform may be instrumented with tri-axial C.G. accelerometers, and includes tri-axial force sensors at both left and right TMJ's as well as the upper dentition. Mandible force and displacement response under direct chin impact has been validated against cadaver corridors developed recently at Wayne State University.

In 1967, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) introduced the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 301 “Fuel System Integrity”, to ensure minimum fuel system integrity requirements were met. Recent studies of FARS and state data have shown a dramatic reduction of fire rates in motor vehicle crashes over the past 30 years. Design features and safety components are present in today's fleet that were not present when the standard was issued. An investigation of the state-of-the-art in automotive fuel systems was conducted to examine the features of fuel systems in the 2003 fleet of vehicles. These features, in combination, have contributed to the reduction in fire rates. The investigation consisted primarily of an in-vehicle inspection of 89 fuel tank installations and a further investigation of fuel tank fire safety technologies.

In 1989, the EUROSID-1 was accepted in the European regulation ECE-R95. After a steady period of use, an upgraded version of this dummy: ES-2 is now considered as a step towards harmonization of side impact occupant regulations. The upgrades to the dummy include, amongst others, a modification of its torso back plate and a change in rib module guidance (piston-cylinder), especially to overcome anomalous rib deflection responses referred to as ""flat-top.'' Presented here are results of lateral and oblique pendulum tests, conducted on the EUROSID-1 and ES-2 to verify the modified torso back plate and to study the responses of three proposed rib module designs for ES-2. Particularly, rib deflections, rib VC responses, and thorax force-deflection responses are analyzed. The current study primarily addresses sensitivity of the ES-2 thorax to oblique loading.

This paper describes the efforts of one group to improve the biomechanical fidelity of ATD headforms used in automotive crash testing. On the basis of recent cadaver head impact studies and on the literature dealing with facial bone tolerances, several refinements have been made to the Hybrid III head-form. These include a slight modification of effective skull stiffness, the addition of a frangible faceform sub-assembly and the introduction of a compliant mandible. The purpose of these modifications is to improve both the response characteristics to impact as well as to provide a direct means to monitor for facial bone injury.