Performance comparison of human and dummy models in various vehicle frontal crash scenarios based on federal regulatory standards

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Issue Date
2016-07
Embargo End Date
Authors
Sasikumar, Nitheesh
Advisor
Lankarani, Hamid M.
Citation
Abstract

Significant advancements in enhancing passenger safety and vehicle structures have been made in the automotive industry to protect the occupants and to minimize the injuries during crash events. Variety of crash tests, based on federal regulatory standards, have been performed with an end goal to examine the occupant kinematics and potential injury responses. Among different automotive crash scenarios, the frontal impact is the most common type of accident, which has been considered in this study. In recent years, computer-aided engineering tools have been extensively utilized in modeling, analysis and design of vehicle structures and occupant safety systems. The primary reason for the development and use of simulation models is to reduce the number of full-scale sled tests performed, which require vast flow time and are associated with significant cost. This thesis entirely focuses on the comparison of dynamic responses of human body models versus the crash dummy models in various vehicle frontal federal regulatory standards. For this reason, a ford taurus car representing a typical sedan has been considered as a medium. The simulation tests are conducted for the full frontal impact, small offset overlap impact and oblique impact configurations. A car interior environment is developed in MADYMO code, in which the human and dummy models are placed in. The acceleration acquired from the finite element analysis of frontal crash scenarios and the driver seat node are then input into the MADYMO code for both human and dummy models, and their kinematic responses are then compared. Per regulations, chest injury is considered to be a prominent factor in frontal crashes. Hence, the variations of chest deflection, chest acceleration and viscous criteria are investigated. The results from this study illustrate the potential difference between the human and dummy dynamic performances in various frontal crash scenarios. In particular, the differences in chest acceleration, chest deflection, and flexibility of spine are quantified.

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Thesis (M.S.)--Wichita State University, College of Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
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