Project Areas

Occupant Safety

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Head Protection During Interior Impact

Vehicle interior impact safety for passengers is of increasing importance, but what material to use? CIC have developed a method for evaluating energy absorbing material performance in a manner similar to the legislative test procedure but at a fraction the cost. The procedure employs a rigid impact surface, that the sample is positioned on, and an instrumented Hybrid III dummy head. The head is raised, held in position by an electro-magnet, then released to fall under gravity and impact the material at a speed of 6.7 m/s. Deflection of the material is measured by a potentiometer or double integration of the accelerometer array signals. The influence of the trim panel/cover material can be quantified by including it in the test.

Testing of energy absorbing materials and trim panel/covering materials when mounted in a vehicle can also be undertaken for the development of 'systems' to provide optimum performance using similar techniques.  The influence of attachment to the vehicle part and the attenuation of the vehicle can then be quantified.

The development of 'systems' can also be examined by utilising finite element techniques. Detailed models can integrate data on the vehicle structure, energy absorbing materials and trim/cover materials and rapidly compute the consequences of a head impact for various horizontal and vertical approach angles.