F2010D093
Whiplash Prevention - Design, Conflicts, Achievements View of a Car Manufacturer
Keywords: Design for whiplash, testing and simulation, conflicts, whiplash achievements
Subject groups: C4, D4
In the last years, the slow rear-end collision accompanied by the whiplash phenomenon has been a topic of discussion, especially for insurance companies and various consumer organisations. EuroNCAP and IIHS developed pragmatic measurement procedures to predict the risk of whiplash, although the biomechanics of the phenomenon is not fully understood up to now. Therefore the development of whiplash preventing seats got a high focus in the design process of a new car. The seat in general is designed to sit comfortable on it for longer trips and to be safe by a crash and has therefore to fulfil several requirements. On the one hand customers ask for enough clearance between head and head restraint, on the other hand this is negatively in case of a rear accident. These different issues could only be solved by means of a combined process of testing and simulation. The challenge of simulation was to build up biomechanical dummy models and finite element seat models considering the influence of the structure and the foam. In parallel it was important to study all the effects of different seat parameters. At present the prediction of simulation is close to the test results. Nevertheless today there are some gaps between testing and simulation, so we still have to go on improving our tools.
In the presented paper, the development process of whiplash especially simulation and refined testing is described. A description of the calibration of hardware and FEM and the challenges in this process are given, e.g. the consequences of late changes. Finally it is presented what kinds of improvements in the methods for the future are still necessary.
This paper is original and has not been published or presented elsewhere.
This abstract is supplemented by a PDF, which can be viewed here.
Session: Injury Mechanism, Injury Reduction