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The application of optical diagnostics in turbulent reactive flows often suffers from the beam steering (BS) effects, resulting in degraded image quality and/or measurement accuracy. This work investigated a method to correct the BS effects to improve the accuracy of optical diagnostics, with particle imagine velocimetry (PIV) measurements on turbulent reactive flames as an example. The proposed method used a guiding laser to correct BS. Demonstration in laboratory turbulent flames showed promising results where the accuracy of PIV measurement was significantly enhanced. Applicability to more complicated and practical situations are discussed.

Some rollover testing methodologies require specification of vehicle kinematic parameters including travel speed, vertical velocity, roll rate, and pitch angle, etc. at the initiation of vehicle to ground contact, which have been referred to as touchdown conditions. The complexity of the vehicle, as well as environmental and driving input characteristics make prediction of realistic touchdown conditions for rollover crashes, and moreover, identification of parameter sensitivities of these characteristics, is difficult and expensive without simulation tools. The goal of this study was to study the sensitivity of driver input on touchdown parameters and the risk of rollover in cases of steering-induced soil-tripped rollovers, which are the most prevalent type of rollover crashes. Knowing the range and variation of touchdown parameters and their sensitivities would help in picking realistic parameters for simulating controlled rollover tests.

In recent years, there has been a growing desire to incorporate computational methods into aircraft icing certification practices. To improve understanding of ice shapes, a new experimental program in the NASA Icing Research Tunnel (IRT) will investigate swept hybrid models which are very large relative to the test section and are intended to operate at high lift coefficients. The present computations were conducted to help plan the experiments and to ascertain any effects of flow separation and unsteady forces. As they can be useful in robustly and accurately predicting large separation regions and capturing flow unsteadiness, a Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) approach has been adopted for simulating the flow over these large high-lift wing sections. The DES methodology was first validated using experimental data from an unswept NACA 0012 airfoil with leading-edge ice accretion, showing reasonable performance.

A follow-up case study on rollover testing with a single full-size sport utility vehicle (SUV) was conducted under controlled real-world conditions. The purpose of this study was to conduct a well-documented rollover event that could be utilized in evaluating various methods and techniques over the phases associated with rollover accidents. The phases documented and discussed, inherent to rollovers, are: pre-trip, trip, and rolling phases. With recent advances in technology, new devices and techniques have been designed which improve the ability to capture and document the unpredictable dynamic events surrounding vehicle rollovers. One such device is an inertial measurement unit (IMU), which utilizes GPS technology along with integrated sensors to report and record measured dynamic parameters real-time. The data obtained from a RT-4003 IMU device are presented and compared along with previous test data and methodology.

Occupant kinematics during rollover motor vehicle collisions have been investigated over the past thirty years utilizing Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs) in various test methodologies such as dolly rollover tests, CRIS testing, spin-fixture testing, and ramp-induced rollovers. Recent testing has utilized steer maneuver-induced furrow tripped rollovers to gain further understanding of vehicle kinematics, including the vehicle's pre-trip motion. The current study consisted of two rollover tests utilizing instrumented test vehicles and instrumented ATDs to investigate occupant kinematics and injury response throughout the entire rollover sequences, from pre-trip vehicle motion to the position of rest. The two steer maneuver-induced furrow tripped rollover tests utilized a mid-sized 4-door sedan and a full-sized crew-cab pickup truck. The pickup truck was equipped with seatbelt pretensioners and rollover-activated side curtain airbags (RSCAs).

The THOR-NT dummy has been developed and continuously improved by NHTSA to provide automotive manufacturers an advanced tool that can be used to assess the injury risk of vehicle occupants in crash tests. With the recent improvements of finite element (FE) technology and the increase of computational power, a validated FE model of THOR may provide an efficient tool for the design optimization of vehicles and their restraint systems. The main goal of this study was to improve biofidelity of a head-neck FE model of THOR-NT dummy. A three-dimensional FE model of the head and neck was developed in LS-Dyna based on the drawings of the THOR dummy. The material properties of deformable parts and the joints properties between rigid parts were assigned initially based on data found in the literature, and then calibrated using optimization techniques.

This study evaluated the response of restrained post-mortem human subjects (PMHS) in 40 km/h frontal sled tests. Eight male PMHS were restrained on a rigid planar seat by a custom 3-point shoulder and lap belt. A video motion tracking system measured three-dimensional trajectories of multiple skeletal sites on the torso allowing quantification of ribcage deformation. Anterior and superior displacement of the lower ribcage may have contributed to sternal fractures occurring early in the event, at displacement levels below those typically considered injurious, suggesting that fracture risk is not fully described by traditional definitions of chest deformation. The methodology presented here produced novel kinematic data that will be useful in developing biofidelic human models.

Thoracic trauma is the principle causative factor in 30% of road traffic deaths. Researchers have developed force-deflection corridors of the thorax for various loading conditions in order to elucidate injury mechanisms and to validate the mechanical response of ATDs and numerical human models. A corridor, rather than a single response characteristic, results from the variability inherent in biological experimentation. This response variability is caused by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The intrinsic factors are associated with individual differences among human subjects, e.g., the differences in material properties and in body geometry. The extrinsic sources of variability include fluctuations in the loading and supporting conditions in experimental tests.

Pedestrian impact protection has been a growing area of research over the past twenty or more years. The results from many studies have shown the importance of providing protection to vulnerable road users as a means of reducing roadway fatalities. Most of this research has focused on the vehicle fleet as a whole in datasets that are dominated by passenger cars (cars). Historically, the influence of vehicle body type on injury distribution patterns for pedestrians has not been a primary research focus. In this study we used the Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS) database of detailed pedestrian crash investigations to identify how injury patterns differ for pedestrians struck by light trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles (LTVs) from those struck by cars. AIS 2+ and 3+ injuries for each segment of vehicles were mapped back to both the body region of the pedestrian injured and the vehicle source linked to that injury in the PCDS database.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is conducting a research program to investigate the use of the 40 percent offset deformable barrier (ODB) crash test procedure to reduce death and injury, in particular debilitating lower extremity injuries in frontal offset collisions. This paper presents the results of 22 ODB crash tests conducted with 50th percentile male and 5th percentile female Hybrid III (HIII) dummies fitted with advanced lower legs, Thor-Lx/HIIIr and Thor-FLx/HIIIr, to assess the potential for debilitating and costly lower limb injuries. This paper also begins to investigate the implications that the ODB test procedure may have for fleet compatibility by evaluating the results from vehicle-to-vehicle crash tests.

Strategies for the inoculation of bioreactors for long-term space missions include communities of diverse composition or, alternatively, communities of a few organisms selected for their ability to efficiently catalyze reactions of interest in the reactor. The concept of functional redundancy states that in a diverse community, several different organisms may be present that are capable of effecting processes necessary to the maintenance of the system function. The concept implies that if some members of the community are lost, others will be able to keep the system from failing in the critical reactions that take place therein. In a sewage reactor in the laboratory, a diverse community at steady state was perturbed by elimination of aeration for seven days. Chemical pools (NH4+, NO3-, dissolved O2), pH, and CO2 evolution were monitored before, during, and after the perturbation.

The Icing Branch at NASA Glenn Research Center has funded an exploratory effort to identify requirements for developing a flight dispatcher-centered web-based icing training program that would be available for all airspace users. Through research and discussions with personnel at airlines, target areas were identified as influences on the requirements for the training system: 1 Flight dispatchers' icing related judgments and decision-making; 2 Certification, new hire and recurrent flight dispatcher training with respect to icing; 3 Icing related weather sources and the problems that flight dispatchers may have in their interpretation; 4 Pedagogical strategies (such as flight dispatcher-centered scenario-based approaches) for delivering flight dispatcher training content; and 5 Concerns/constraints with respect to web-based training for flight dispatchers.

A major focus of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) vehicle compatibility and aggressivity research program is the development of a laboratory test procedure to evaluate compatibility. This paper is written to explain the associated goals, issues, and design considerations and to review the preliminary results from this ongoing research program. One of NHTSA's activities supporting the development of a test procedure involves investigating the use of an mobile deformable barrier (MDB) into vehicle test to evaluate both the self-protection (crashworthiness) and the partner-protection (compatibility) of the subject vehicle. For this development, the MDB is intended to represent the median or expected crash partner. This representiveness includes such vehicle characteristics as weight, size, and frontal stiffness. This paper presents distributions of vehicle measurements based on 1996 fleet registration data.

This paper describes ongoing research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to evaluate the potential of safety restraints on large school buses. School bus transportation is one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States. Large school buses provide protection because of their visibility, size, and weight, as compared to other types of motor vehicles. Additionally, they are required to meet minimum Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) mandating compartmentalized seating, emergency exits, roof crush and fuel system integrity, and minimum bus body joint strength.

This paper provides an overview of a cooperative research program between General Motors Corporation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct a field operational test of a rear-end collision warning system. A description of the system architecture is also presented.

Pedestrian research and testing at the NHTSA Vehicle Research and Test Center has recently focused on assessment of proposed ISO and EEVC head impact test procedures, and extension of these procedures to additional vehicle frontal surfaces. In addition to test parameter sensitivity evaluation, reconstruction of PCDS (Pedestrian Crash Data Study) cases with laboratory impact tests and computer simulations has been conducted. This paper presents the results of this research.

NHTSA uses a variety of computer modelling techniques to develop and evaluate test methods and mitigation concepts, and to estimate safety benefits for many of NHTSA's research activities. Computer modeling has been particularly beneficial for estimating safety benefits where often very little data are available. Also modeling allows researchers to augment test data by simulating crashes over a wider range of conditions than would otherwise be feasible. These capabilities are used for a wide range of projects from school bus to frontal, side, and rollover research programs. This paper provides an overview of these activities. NHTSA's most extensive modeling research involves developing finite element and articulated mass models to evaluate a range of vehicles and crash environments. These models are being used to develop a fleet wide systems model for evaluating compatibility issues.

This paper presents an overview of NHTSA's vehicle aggressivity and fleet compatibility research activities. This research program is being conducted in close cooperation with the International Harmonized Research Agenda (IHRA) compatibility research group. NHTSA is monitoring the changing vehicle mix in the U.S. fleet, analyzing crash statistics, and evaluating any implications that these changes may have for U.S. occupant safety. NHTSA is also continuing full-scale crash testing to develop a better understanding of vehicle compatibility and to investigate test methods to assess vehicle compatibility.

This paper focuses on the overall structure of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN), how data are collected, and what makes it unique. It discusses how it can be used to expand and enhance the information in other databases. CIREN is a collaborative effort to conduct research on crashes and injuries at nine Level 1 Trauma Centers which are linked by a computer network. Researchers can review data and share expertise, which will lead to a better understanding of crash injury mechanisms and the design of safer vehicles. CIREN data are being used in outreach and education programs on motor vehicle safety. CIREN outreach and education has already been credited with lifesaving information dissemination.

This paper describes computer crash simulations performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the current research and testing activities on large school bus safety restraints. The simulations of a frontal rigid barrier test and comparative dynamic sled testing for compartmentalization, lap belt, and lap/shoulder belt restraint strategies are presented. School bus transportation is one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States. School age children transported in school buses are safer than children transported in motor vehicles of any other type. Large school buses provide protection because of their size and weight. Further, they must meet minimum Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSSs) mandating compartmentalized seating, improved emergency exits, stronger roof structures and fuel systems, and better bus body joint strength.