Occupant safety can be significantly improved by continuous restraint control systems. These restraint systems adjust their configuration during the impact according to the actual operating conditions, such as occupant size, weight, occupant position, belt usage and crash severity. In this study, the potential of a controlled restraint system is demonstrated. First, an overview is given of the problems concerning the sensors, actuators andcontrol strategy of such a system, and solutions are given. Next, a numerical demonstrator is developed, which includes a dummy and vehicle model, and a realistic implementation of the components of the controlled restraint system. The demonstrator is subjected to different loading conditions, and the results are compared to a reference model. This reference model contains a conventional restraint system with optimized settings, and it hasbeen validated against sled test experiments. Simulation results with thedemonstrator indicate that significant injury reduction can be achieved with continuous restraint control systems. The full text of this paper may be found at: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/esv/esv21/09-0044.pdf For the covering abstract see ITRD E145407.
Abstract