Project Areas

Occupant Safety

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Energy Absorbing Aircraft Seats

Aircraft passenger environment (residual cell) generally includes the seat to which the passenger is restrained, other seats (seat back and the seat rear spar), adjacent passengers and bulkheads. The restraint system (i.e. seat belt) reduces the number and magnitude of contact forces induced on the passenger’s body segments. However if the aircraft’s crash pulse is too high, the deceleration applied to the passenger body may prove excessive. The induced force on the passenger can be reduced through the use of energy absorbing components within the seat structure.

An example of energy absorbing seats designed by CIC is the double seat with energy absorbing front legs made of composite material. The design facilitates a controlled axial collapse of 25mm without causing separation, i.e. maintaining tensile load induced by the rebound event. The graph on the right shows the accelerations monitored at the test dummy’s head for a "standard seat" and one for a seat incorporating energy absorbers. The dummy was restrained through a standard lap belt and the floor segment to which the seat was mounted (in the standard fashion), was subjected to a 12g deceleration pulse