Neck Motion and Injuries of Small Females and Midsize Males in Frontal Impacts at Two Severities

Head and neck injuries remain a critical area of concern in automotive safety. To inform injury prediction tools, like crash test dummies, neck validation data are needed. While neck response information for midsize males is available, anthropometry-specific data are needed for other body shapes, including small females. The objective of this study is to characterize the neck response (head and neck kinematics and neck injuries) for small females and compare it to the response of midsize males in the same testing conditions.

Six small adult female post-mortem human subjects (PMHS) and three midsize adult male PMHS were each tested twice, once at 3-g (20 km/h) and again at 8-g (43 km/h) in frontal impacts. Motion-capture measurements of the skull and first thoracic vertebrae (T1) were analyzed to calculate head and neck motion.

Females had less downward and less forward head excursion than males for both 3-g and 8-g impact tests. The decreases in peak head responses between the 8-g and 3-g tests were larger for small females than for males, with the largest decrease of 30% for small female downward excursion. Rotation responses were similar for females and males at 3-g. At 8-g; the overall range of T1 pitch was similar for both sexes, although males exhibited an initial rearward T1 pitch. No injuries were found for the male PMHS, while two of the female PMHS had cervical spine injuries.

These kinematic and injury data can be used for injury prediction tool neck validation.