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Recently there has been a greater awareness of the increased risk of certain injuries associated with air bag deployment, especially the risks to small occupants, often women. These injuries include serious eye and upper extremity injuries and even fatalities. This study investigates the interaction of a deploying air bag with cadaveric upper extremities in a typical driving posture; testing concentrates on female occupants. The goals of this investigation are to determine the risk of upper extremity injury caused by primary contact with a deploying air bag and to elucidate the mechanisms of these upper extremity injuries. Five air bags were used that are representative of a wide range of air bag ‘aggressivities’ in the current automobile fleet. This air bag ‘aggressivity’ was quantified using the response of a dummy forearm under air bag deployment.

This paper evaluates the biofidelity of the Hybrid III 5th percentile female dummy relative to seven small female cadavers tested as out-of-position drivers in static air bag deployment tests. In the out-of-position tests, the chest was positioned against the air bag module in an effort to recreate a worst-case loading environment for the thorax. Two pre-depowered production air bags and a prototype dual-stage air bag were evaluated. Thoracic accelerometers and chestbands were used to compare chest compression, velocity, acceleration, and Viscous Criteria. A statistical comparison of dummy and cadaver results indicate acceptable biofidelity of the Hybrid III dummy with significant differences observed only in the Viscous Criteria.

This paper presents an analysis of the displacement measurement of the Hybrid III 50th percentile male dummy chest in quasistatic and dynamic loading environments. In this dummy, the sternal chest deformation is typically characterized using a sliding chest potentiometer, originally designed to measure inward deflection in the central axis of the dummy chest. Loading environments that include other modes of deformation, such as lateral translations or rotations, can create a displacement vector that is not aligned with this sensitive axis. To demonstrate this, the dummy chest was loaded quasistatically and dynamically in a series of tests. A string potentiometer array, with the capability to monitor additional deflection modes, was used to supplement the measurement of the chest slider.

Computer simulations, dummy experiments with a new enhanced upper extremity, and small female cadaver experiments were used to analyze the small female upper extremity response under side air bag loading. After establishing the initial position, three tests were performed with the 5th percentile female hybrid III dummy, and six experiments with small female cadaver subjects. A new 5th percentile female enhanced upper extremity was developed for the dummy experiments that included a two-axis wrist load cell in addition to the existing six-axis load cells in both the forearm and humerus. Forearm pronation was also included in the new dummy upper extremity to increase the biofidelity of the interaction with the handgrip. Instrumentation for both the cadaver and dummy tests included accelerometers and magnetohydrodynamic angular rate sensors on the forearm, humerus, upper and lower spine.

A conceptual approach to help understand and simulate droplet induced pre-ignition is presented. The complex phenomenon of oil-fuel droplet induced pre-ignition has been decomposed to its elementary processes. This approach helps identify the key fluid properties and engine parameters that affect the pre-ignition phenomenon, and could be used to control LSPI. Based on the conceptual model, a 3D CFD engine simulation has been developed which is able to realistically model all of the elementary processes involved in droplet induced pre-ignition. The simulation was successfully able to predict droplet induced pre-ignition at conditions where the phenomenon has been experimentally observed. The simulation has been able to help explain the observation of pre-ignition advancement relative to injection timing as experimentally observed in a previous study [6].

Occupant restraint systems are developed based on some baseline experiments. While these experiments can only represent small part of various accident modes, the current procedure for utilizing the restraint systems may not provide the optimum protection in the majority of accident modes. This study presents an approach to predict occupant injury responses before the collision happens, so that the occupant restraint system, equipped with a motorized pretensioner, can be adjusted to the optimal parameters aiming at the imminent vehicle-to-vehicle frontal crash. The approach in this study takes advantage of the information from pre-crash systems, such as the time to collision, the relative velocity, the frontal overlap, the size of the vehicle in the front and so on. In this paper, the vehicle containing these pre-crash features will be referred to as ego vehicle. The information acquired and the basic crash test results can be integrated to predict a simplified crash pulse.

As the restraint technologies for front-seat occupant protection advance, such as seatbelt pre-tensioner, seatbelt load limiter and airbag, relative effectiveness of rear-seat occupant protection decreases, especially for the elderly. Some occupant protection systems for front-seat have been proved to be effective for rear-seat occupant protection as well, but they also have some drawbacks. Seatbelt could generate unwanted local penetrations to the chest and abdomen. And for rear-seat occupants, it might be difficult to install airbag and set deployment time. For crash protection, it is desirable that the restraint loads are spread to the sturdy parts of human body such as head, shoulders, rib cage, pelvis and femurs, as uniformly as possible. This paper explores a uniform restraint concept aiming at providing protection in wide range of impact severity for rear-seat occupants.

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.

Selectively reinforced, squeeze cast automotive pistons contain a boundary between the reinforced and unreinforced regions. This boundary is known as the macro-interface. Due to the difference in CTE between the composite and unreinforced matrix, the macro-interface can be the site of residual stress formation during cooling from the casting or heat treatment temperature. Subsequent thermal exposure, particularly thermal cycling, may produce cyclic stress at this interface causing it to experience fatigue. It has been found that matrix precipitates at the macro-interface and the aging behavior of the matrix also may play a role in defining the strength of the macro-interface during thermal cycling conditions.

The response and risk of injury for occupants in frontal crashes are more severe when structural deformation occurs in the vehicle interior. To reproduce this impact environment in the laboratory, a sled system capable of producing structural intrusion in the footwell region has been developed. The system couples the hydraulic decelerator of the sled to actuator pistons attached to the toepan and floorpan structure of the buck. Characterization of the footwell intrusion event is based on developing a toepan pulse analogous to the acceleration pulse used to characterize sled and vehicle decelerations. Preliminary sled tests with the system indicate that it is capable of simulating a complex sequence of toepan/floorpan translations and rotations.

Sixty-three simulated frontal impacts using cadaveric specimens were performed to examine and quantify the performance of various contemporary automotive restraint systems. Test specimens were instrumented with accelerometers and chest bands to characterize their mechanical responses during the impact. The resulting thoracic injury severity was determined using detailed autopsy and was classified using the Abbreviated Injury Scale. The ability of various mechanical parameters and combinations of parameters to assess the observed injury severities was examined and resulted in the observation that belt restraint systems generally had higher injury rates than air bag restraint systems for the same level of mechanical responses. To provide better injury evaluations from observed mechanical parameters without prior knowledge of what restraint system was being used, a dichotomous process was developed.

Two sled systems capable of producing structural intrusion in the footwell region of an automobile have been developed. The first, System A, provides translational toepan intrusion using actuator pistons to drive the footwell structure of the test buck. These actuator pistons are coupled to the hydraulic decelerator of the test sled and are powered by hydraulic energy from the impact event. Resulting footwell intrusion is characterized using a toepan pulse analogous to the acceleration pulse used to characterize sled and vehicle decelerations. Sled tests with System A indicate that it is capable of accurately and repeatably simulating toepan/floorpan intrusion into the occupant footwell. Test results, including a comparison of lower extremity response between intrusion sled tests and no intrusion sled tests, indicate that this system is capable of repeatable, controlled structural intrusion during a sled test impact.

This paper examines an originally designed airbag deployment system for use in static experimental testing. It consists of a pressure vessel and valve arrangement with pneumatic and electric controls. A piston functions like a valve when operated and is activated pneumatically to release the air in the tank. Once released, the air fills the attached airbag. The leading edge velocity can be controlled by the initial pressure in the tank, which can range up to 960 kPa. Three different test configurations were studied, which resulted in leading edge deployment speeds of approximately 20 m/s, 40 m/s, and 60 m/s. In experiments using this system, seven types of airbags were tested that differed in their material, coating, and presence of a tether. Data for each series of tests is provided. High speed video and film were used to record the deployments, and a pressure transducer measured the airbag's internal pressure.

An autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system can detect emergency conditions using sensors (e.g., radar and camera) to automatically activate the braking actuator without driver input. However, during the hard braking phase, crash conditions for the restraint system can easily change (e.g., vehicle velocity and occupant position), causing an out-of-position (OOP) phenomenon, especially for unbelted occupants entering the airbag deployment range, which may lead to more severe injuries than in a normal position. A critical step in reducing the injury of unbelted occupants would be to design an AEB system while considering the effect of deployed airbags on the occupants. Thus far, few studies have paid attention to the compatibility between AEB and airbag systems for unbelted occupants. This study aims to provide a method that combines AEB and airbag systems to explore the potential injury reduction capabilities for unbelted occupants.

The air bag has proven effective in reducing fatalities in frontal crashes with estimated decreases ranging from 11% to 30% depending on the size of the vehicle [IIHS-1995, Kahane-1996]. At the same time, some air bag designs have caused fatalities when front-seat passengers have been in close proximity to the deploying air bag [Kleinberger-1997]. The objective of this study was to develop an accurate and repeatable out-of-position test fixture to study the deployment of air bags into out-of-position occupants. Tests were performed with a 5th percentile female Hybrid III dummy and studied air bag loading on the thorax using draft ISO-2 out-of-position (OOP) occupant positioning. Two different interpretations of the ISO-2 positioning were used in this study. The first, termed Nominal ISO-2, placed the chin on the steering wheel with the spine parallel to the steering wheel.

Seatbelt and airbags provide effective occupant restraint, but are also potential to induce intrusive deformation and submarining injuries in motor vehicle crashes. To address these issues, this study puts forward a new restraint concept that applies restraint loads on shoulders and knees/femurs, i.e., the sturdiest regions of human body, via a combined use of shoulder bolster and knee bolster based on biomechanical computational analysis. The load characteristics of the two bolsters were optimized to obtain protection effectiveness superior to conventional use of seatbelt and airbag. Occupant kinematics and kinetics were taken into account, including the excursions of head, shoulders and knees, the accelerations of head and chest, and the compressions of thorax on several locations on the ribcage. The injury risk of rib fractures was monitored based on the strain levels of ribcage.

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), because of its low cost, high H/C ratio, and high octane number, has great potential in automotive industry, especially for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. However, relative slow flame speed of natural gas leads to long combustion duration and low thermal efficiency and tends to cause knock combustion at high load, which will aggravate engine thermal load and reliability. Enhancing turbulence intensity in combustion chamber is an effective way to accelerate flame propagation speed and improve combustion performance. In this study, the flow simulations of several piston bowls with different inner-convex forms were carried out using three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D-CFD) software CONVERGE. The numerical results showed the piston bowls with inner-convex could disturb the charge swirl motion and enhance turbulence of different intensity. A hexagram geometry bowl was proved to have the best function in strengthening turbulence intensity.

Some rollover test methods, which impose a touchdown condition on a test vehicle, have been developed to study vehicle crashworthiness and occupant protection in rollover crashes. In ground-tripped rollover crashes, speed, steering maneuver, braking, vehicle inertial and geometric properties, topographical and road design characteristics, and soil type can all affect vehicle touchdown conditions. It is presumed that while there may be numerous possible combinations of kinematic metrics (velocity components and orientation) at touchdown, there are also numerous combinations of metrics that are not likely to occur in rollover crashes. To determine a realistic set of touchdown conditions to be used in a vehicle rollover crash test, a lateral deceleration sled-based non-destructive rollover initiation test system (RITS) with a fully programmable deceleration pulse is in development.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the biofidelity of the three computational surrogates (GHBMC model, WorldSID model, and the FTSS ES-2re model) under the side impact rigid wall sled test condition. The responses of the three computational surrogates were compared to those of post mortem human surrogate (PMHS) and objectively evaluated using the correlation and analysis (CORA) rating method. Among the three computational surrogates, the GHBMC model showed the best biofidelity based on the CORA rating score (GHBMC =0.65, WorldSID =0.57, FTSS ES-2re =0.58). In general, the response of the pelvis of all the models showed a good correlation with the PMHS response, while the response of the shoulder and the lower extremity did not. In terms of fracture prediction, the GHBMC model overestimated bone fracture.

In a monotube magnetorheological fluid damper (MRFD), there usually exists a compensation chamber with designated initial gas pressure. This enclosed compensation chamber works as an air spring to some degree to provide force to the working piston. In this work, in order to extend the external damping force range and improve the controlling efficiency, a structure of MRFD with three additional accumulators is proposed. These additional accumulators are connected to the atmosphere through an air pump and the compensation chamber with a barometric valve. The external damping force range thus can be rapidly adjusted through mode shifting with this configuration. A mathematical model of this damper with coupled effects between the air and the magnetorheological fluid (MRF) is developed. Comparing the bench tests results with some simulation outcomes, the simulation model of this MRFD is validated.