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Frontal-Crash Occupant Protection in the Rear Seat: Submarining and Abdomen/Pelvis Response in Midsized Male
Allison J Guettler1, Samuel T Bianco1, Devon L Albert1
1Virginia Tech, Center for Injury Biomechanics.
Stapp Car Crash Journal
|April 25, 2024
Summary
Rear seat occupants face submarining risks in frontal crashes. Post-mortem human surrogates revealed significant protection gaps, highlighting the need for improved vehicle safety designs.
Area of Science:
- Road safety
- Biomechanics
- Injury prevention
Background:
- Submarining is a critical injury risk in frontal crashes, particularly for rear-seat occupants.
- Assessing rear-seat occupant protection requires advanced testing methods beyond current anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs).
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate submarining protection and abdominal injury risk for midsized males in rear seats during frontal-crash simulations.
- To compare post-mortem human surrogate (PMHS) responses with ATD performance in predicting submarining.
Main Methods:
- Conducted twelve frontal-crash sled tests using four rear-seat vehicle buck configurations.
- Utilized twelve PMHS, measuring abdominal pressure and identifying injuries.
- Compared PMHS submarining incidence and kinematics with Hybrid III and THOR-50M ATD data from previous studies.
Main Results:
- Five out of twelve PMHS experienced submarining, occurring in two of the four tested vehicles.
- Heavier PMHS sustained pelvis fractures without submarining.
- The THOR-50M ATD submarined in three out of four tests, while the Hybrid III ATD never submarined, indicating limitations in ATD predictive accuracy.
- Seat pan geometry was identified as a key factor influencing submarining.
Conclusions:
- Current frontal-crash protection for rear-seat occupants, especially midsized males, has significant deficiencies.
- Existing ATDs (Hybrid III and THOR-50M) show limitations in accurately predicting submarining in rear-seat scenarios.
- Further research is essential to enhance rear-seat occupant protection for all individuals.
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