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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

A Test Bed to Examine Helmet Fit and Retention and Biomechanical Measures of Head and Neck Injury in Simulated Impact
Published on: September 21, 2017
Deflection, acceleration, and force corridors for small females in side impacts
Narayan Yoganandan1, Frank A Pintar
1Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 West Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA. yoga@mcw.edu
Objective:
This study was undertaken to develop biomechanical corridors applicable to the small-sized female in side impacts.
Methods:
Sled tests were conducted using post mortem human subjects at a velocity of 6.7 m/s. Three chestbands were used to compute deflection-time histories at the axilla, xyphoid process, and tenth rib levels. Triaxial accelerometers were fixed to the upper and lower spine and sacrum to record acceleration-time histories. Specimens contacted the load wall with varying initial conditions (rigid and padded; flat wall and offset) from which impact forces to the thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic regions were obtained using load cell data. Adopting signal processing and mass-based scaling methods, corridors were derived for forces, accelerations, and chest deflections at three levels for all initial conditions.
Results:
All time history corridors were expressed as mean plus/minus one standard deviation and provided in the article.
Conclusions:
Acceleration-, deflection-, and force-time corridors obtained for the chest and pelvic regions of the human body will assist in the assessment of anthropomorphic test devices used in crashworthiness evaluations.
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