TECHNIQUES FOR DEVELOPING CHILD DUMMY PROTECTION REFERENCE VALUES

The purpose of this report is to present background information and techniques for developing protection reference values (PRV) to use with child dummies in out-of-position (OOP) child/air bag interaction testing. Biomechanics experts agree that OOP PRV in the literature should not apply to frontal belt-restrained child occupants (using child restraints or belts). However, given the very limited amount of data available, all sources of information were used to extract child injury PRV. An important point of distinction is the difference between injury criteria and protection reference values. Injury criteria apply to humans, while PRV apply to crash test dummies. If dummies were perfectly biofidelic, the injury criteria and PRV would be the same. Since dummies only approximate human response to varying degrees, PRV are usually different from injury criteria. In addition, PRV developed for a particular dummy in a particular situation may or may not apply to other dummies of that size, nor to other impact conditions. The dummies' structures particularly emphasize their different responses to direct and indirect loading. This report summarizes the literature on injury criteria and protection reference values as it pertains to children. As the first part of the background section, child anatomy and physiology are examined with respect to impact injuries (Burdi et al., 1969, Eichelberger, 1993). Epidemiology on the types of injuries that children receive in automotive accidents is also reviewed. In addition, data on how human tissue mechanical properties vary with age are presented. The characteristics and capabilities of different child dummies are documented as well. The next section assesses injury and PRV development techniques. A literature review on how these techniques have been applied to children follows. Data from regular test programs using child dummies are included for comparison. The last sections employ different scaling techniques to estimate PRV for child dummies. These, together with values from the literature survey, are summarized and presented as proposed reference values.

• Record URL:
  http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/NRD/Multimedia/PDFs/Biomechanics%20&%20Trauma/kid.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Klinich, K D
  • SAUL, R A
  • Auguste, G
  • Backaitis, S
  • Kleinberger, Michael
• Publication Date: 1996-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 87 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Air bags; Anatomy; Children; Crash injury research; Crash tests; Dummies; Epidemiology; Fatalities; Front seat occupants; Injuries; Literature reviews; Mechanical properties; Occupant protection devices; Physiology; Seat belts; Traffic crashes; Vehicle occupants
• Uncontrolled Terms: Human tissue; Injury criteria; Out of position (Vehicle occupants); Protection reference values
• Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I84: Personal Injuries;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00961951
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 18 2003 12:00AM