Despite the promulgation of the US Side Impact Standard (Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 214) in 1990, the controversy regarding the effectiveness of the Thoracic Trauma Index (TTI) as a predictor of injury, the biofidelity of the various side impact dummies and the best way to protect occupants against a side impact continues to rage. In view of the fact that these issues need to be resolved, the objectives of this paper are to address the following issues: Determination of the best injury criterion for side impact; Determination of an optimal stiffness for the padding to be used for side impact protection; Determination of the effect of the loss of air space due to the addition of padding; Determination of the effect of reducing the door velocity on the near side occupant; and Determination of the effect of the loss of door/shoulder interaction when the driver's arms are fully extended while turning. The first issue is resolved by examining available cadaveric side impact data while the remaining four issues can be studied more efficiently with the help of a validated computer model. A brief description of the model is provided in this paper. (A)
Abstract