Small female head and neck interaction with a deploying side airbag

Area of Science:

• Biomechanical engineering
• Automotive safety research
• Injury biomechanics

Background:

• Side airbags are crucial safety features in modern vehicles.
• Understanding occupant kinematics and injury mechanisms is vital for vehicle safety design.
• Specific attention is needed for smaller occupants and out-of-position scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the head and neck injury potential for out-of-position small females exposed to deploying thoracic-type side airbags.
• To evaluate injury risks using both dummy and cadaveric models under worst-case loading conditions.

Main Methods:

• Utilized seat-mounted, thoracic-type side airbags representative of luxury automobiles.
• Employed computer simulations to determine the worst-case out-of-position loading scenario.
• Conducted experiments using the Hybrid III 5th percentile dummy and three small female cadavers with varying inflators.

Main Results:

• Dummy head accelerations ranged from 71-154 x g; cadaver values were 68-103 x g.
• Peak neck tension in the dummy increased with inflator aggressivity (992-1670N).
• All tested parameters remained below established injury thresholds, predicting a low likelihood of neck injury, with no observed injuries in cadavers.

Conclusions:

• Small females in worst-case out-of-position scenarios face a low risk of head and neck injury from thoracic-type airbags.
• Increasing airbag inflator aggressivity correlates with a higher injury risk.
• Current thoracic-type airbag designs appear safe for small female occupants even in adverse positions.