Thirty-two sled tests were conducted with 19 human volunteers using the lap belt, air bag and Air Force harness restraint systems. The component parts (seat pan, foot pan, belts, etc.) of the restraint systems were instrumented and force-time recordings were made during impact. The impulse-momentum theorem was used to find the proportion of human weight which went into each component of the restraint system. The component weights for each human were totaled and compared to the human's actual weight. The comparison showed the component total to be accurate within 0.5 to 6.4 percent. The weight distribution information will prove useful in the design and verification of dummies to be used in impact testing. Further, it should be valuable to designers of mathematical models of human impact. (Author)
Abstract