The issue of the European Directive 96/27/EC: "Protection of Occupants of Motor Vehicles in the Event of a Side Impact" in 1998 marked an important step in improving vehicle safety in Europe, but also confronted car and restraint manufacturers with the difficulties of having to comply with different standards in the world. Subsequently, harmonisation of the side impact test procedures and test devices has become a key objective for industry and governments world-wide. The EEVC WG12 on Adult Crash Dummies has contributed to this objective by assessing the design of the existing European side impact dummy EUROSID-1. Updates to the design are proposed to make it acceptable for application in other standards in the world as an intermediate harmonisation solution until the WorldSID dummy becomes available. This paper summarises the main design improvements and gives the results of the dummy evaluation program carried out on behalf of the working group. This evaluation has shown that the important shortcomings of the EUROSID-1 have been satisfactorily addressed with this new design, whilst biofidelity is maintained.
Abstract