The new safety standards or car assessment programs for passive safety lead to the stiffening of car bodies. Consequently, the loading of occupants increases, generating a higher injury risk to the thorax. To avoid this increase in undeformed cars, more efficient restraining systems have to be developed. But the improvement of performances should not increase out-of-position (OOP) risks, in particular to the neck and thorax of adults and to children. This paper deals with the development of a new restraining system combining a belt with 4 kN force limiter and an airbag with pressure limitation. In order to have a biomechanical evaluation of real protection on human being, the OOP injury risk is studied by Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) experiments. (A)
Abstract