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Current state-of-the-art vehicles implement pedestrian protection features that rely on pedestrian detection sensors and algorithms to trigger when impacting a pedestrian. During the development phase, the vehicle must “learn” to discriminate pedestrians from the rest of potential impacting objects. Part of the training data used in this process is often obtained in physical tests utilizing legform impactors whose external biofidelity is still to be evaluated. This study uses THUMS as a reference to assess the external biofidelity of the most commonly used impactors (Flex-PLI, PDI-1 and PDI-2). This biofidelity assessment was performed by finite element simulation measuring the bumper beam forces exerted by each surrogate on a sedan and a SUV. The bumper beam was divided in 50 mm sections to capture the force distribution in both vehicles. This study, unlike most of the pedestrian-related literature, examines different impact locations and velocities.

Power steering systems provide significant design challenges. They are detrimental to fuel economy since most require the continuous operation of a hydraulic pump. This generates heat that must be dissipated by fluid lines and heat exchangers. This paper presents a simple one-dimensional transient model for power steering components. The model accounts for the pump power, heat dissipation from fluid lines, the power steering cooler, and the influence of radiation heat from exhaust system components. The paper also shows how to use a transient thermal model of the entire system to simulate the temperatures during cyclic operation of the system. The implications to design, drive cycle simulation, and selection of components are highlighted.

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.

The Cummins M-11 high soot diesel engine test is a key tool in evaluating lubricants for the new PC-7 (CH-4) performance category. M-11 rocker arms and crossheads from tests with a wide range of lubricant performance were studied by surface analytical techniques. Abrasive wear by primary soot particles is supported by the predominant appearance of parallel grooves on the worn parts with their widths matching closely the primary soot particle sizes. Soot abrasive action appears to be responsible for removing the protective antiwear film and, thus, abrades against metal parts as well. Subsequent to the removal of the antiwear film, carbide particles, graphite nodules, and other wear debris are abraded, either by soot particles or sliding metal-metal contact, from the crosshead and rocker arm metal surfaces. These particles further accelerate abrasive wear. In addition to abrasive wear, fatigue wear was evident on the engine parts.

One Dimensional models for front end air flows through the cooling system package are very useful for evaluating the effects of component and front end geometry changes. To solve such models for the air flow requires a robust iterative process that involves a number of non-linear sub-models. The cooling fan (s) constitute a major part of the difficulty, especially when they employ a viscous or “thermal” fan drive. This drive varies the torque coupling between the input and output shafts based on the radiator outlet air temperature. The coupling is achieved by viscous shear between two grooved disks and is regulated by a bimetal strip valve that varies the amount of fluid between the disks. This paper presents a mathematical model by which the input/output speed ratio may be determined as a function of the air temperature and input speed. Coefficients in the model are estimated from standard supplier performance information.

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.

Biomechanical data are often assumed to be doubly censored. In this paper, this assumption is evaluated critically for several previously published sets of data. Injury risk functions are compared using simple logistic regression and using survival analysis with 1) the assumption of doubly censored data and 2) the assumption of right-censored (uninjured specimens) and uncensored (injured) data. It is shown that the injury risk functions that result from these differing assumptions are not similar and that some experiments will require a preliminary assessment of data censoring prior to finalizing the experimental design. Some types of data are obviously doubly censored (e.g., chest deflection as a predictor of rib fracture risk), but many types are not left censored since injury is a force-limiting phenomenon (e.g., axial force as a predictor of tibia fracture). Guidelines for determining the censoring for various types of experiment are presented.

Studies show that the pedestrian population at high risk of injury consists of both young children and adults. The goal of this study is to gain understanding in the mechanisms that lead to injuries for children and adults. Multi-body pedestrian human models of two specific anthropometries, a 6year-old child and a 50th percentile adult male, are applied. A vehicle model is developed that consists of a detailed rigid finite element mesh, validated stiffness regions, stiff structures underlying the hood and a suspension model. Simulations are performed in a test matrix where anthropometry, impact speed and impact location are variables. Bumper impact occurs with the tibia of the 50th percentile adult male and with the thigh of the 6-year-old child. The head of a 50th percentile male impacts the lower windshield, while the 6-year-old child's head impacts the front part of the hood.

This research investigates the variation of pedestrian stance in pedestrian-automobile impact using a validated multi-body vehicle and human model. Detailed vehicle models of a small family car and a sport utility vehicle (SUV) are developed and validated for impact with a 50th percentile human male anthropometric ellipsoid model, and different pedestrian stances (struck limb forward, feet together, and struck limb backward) are investigated. The models calculate the physical trajectory of the multi-body models including head and torso accelerations, as well as pelvic force loads. This study shows that lower limb orientation during a pedestrian-automobile impact plays a dominant role in upper body kinematics of the pedestrian. Specifically, stance has a substantial effect on the subsequent impacts of the head and thorax with the vehicle. The variation in stance can change the severity of an injury incurred during an impact by changing the impact region.

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.

Multiple series of frontal sled tests were performed to evaluate the new Thor-Lx/HIIIr lower extremity developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for retrofit use on the 50th percentile male Hybrid III. This study's objective was to compare the Thor-Lx/HIIIr to the existing Hybrid III dummy leg (HIII) from the standpoint of repeatability and effects on femur and upper body response values.\ The test-to-test repeatability of the dummy responses, as measured by the coefficient of variation (CV), was generally acceptable (CV < 10%) for all of the test conditions for both legs. Overall, tests with the Thor-Lx/HIIIr legs produced upper body movement and injury criteria values for the head and chest that were acceptably consistent and were generally indistinguishable from those produced with the HIII leg. Low right femur loads, which ranged from 4 to 25 percent of the injury assessment reference value, varied substantially test-to-test for tests with both types of legs.

Crash test dummies rely on biomechanical data from cadaver studies to biofidelically reproduce loading and predict injury. Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain equivalent measurements of leg loading in a dummy and a cadaver, particularly for bending moments. A methodology is presented here to implant load cells in the tibia and fibula while minimally altering the functional anatomy of the two bones. The location and orientation of the load cells can be measured in all six degrees of freedom from post-test radiographs. Equations are given to transform tibial and fibular load cell measurements from a cadaver or dummy to a common leg coordinate frame so that test data can be meaningfully compared.

Fatalities resulting from vehicle rollover events account for over one-third of all U.S. motor vehicle occupant fatalities. While a great deal of research has been directed towards the rollover problem, few studies have attempted to determine the sensitivity of occupant injury risk to variations in the vehicle (roof strength), crash (kinematic conditions at roof-to-ground contact), and occupant (anthropometry, position and posture) parameters that define the conditions of the crash. A two-part computational study was developed to examine the sensitivity of injury risk to changes in these parameters. The first part of this study, the Crash Parameter Sensitivity Study (CPSS), demonstrated the influence of parameters describing the vehicle and the crash on vehicle response using LS-DYNA finite element (FE) simulations.

More than half of occupant lower extremity (LEX) injuries due to automotive frontal crashes are in the knee-thigh-hip (KTH) complex. To design the injury countermeasures for the occupant LEX, first the biomechanical and injury responses of the occupant LEX components during automotive frontal crashes should be known. The objective of this study is to develop a detailed biofidelic occupant LEX Finite Element (FE) model based on the component surfaces reconstructed from the medical image data of a 50th percentile male volunteer in a sitting posture. Both volumetric (unstructured) and structural mesh methods were used to generate the solid elements (mostly hexahedral type) to enhance the model simulation accuracy. The FE model includes the femur, tibia, fibula, patella, cartilage, ligaments, menisci, patella tendon, flesh, muscle, and skin. The constitutive material models and their corresponding parameters were defined based on literature data.

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.

Originally designed for measuring closed-loop contours such as those around a human thorax, the External Peripheral Instrument for Deformation Measurement (EPIDM), or chestband, was developed to improve the measurement of dummy and cadaver thoracic response during impact. In the closed-loop configuration, the chestband wraps around on itself forming a closed contour. This study investigates the use of the chestband for dynamic deformation measurements in an open-loop configuration. In the open-loop configuration, the chestband does not generally form a closed contour. This work includes enhanced procedures and algorithms for the calculation of chestband deformation contours including the determination of static and dynamic chestband contours under several boundary conditions.

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.

The 3-D flow field inside an automotive torque converter was measured using laser velocimetry. For the tests, a torque converter completely machined from Plexiglas was operated at the 0.065 and 0.800 turbine/pump speed ratio, and detailed velocities were measured in 13 planes throughout the torque converter. Digital shaft encoder information was used to correlate measured velocities with the pump/turbine angular positions to generate blade-to-blade profiles, 3-D vector plots, and contour through flow plots. Results showed large flow separation regions, jet/wake flows, circulatory secondary flows, and significant flow unsteadiness in all three torque converter elements (pump, turbine, and stator). From the measured velocities, torque converter performance parameters such as mass flows, input/output torque, element incidence angles, slip factors, and vorticities were determined.

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.