Real-world crash experience has shown the need to reduce the risk of injury from inflating airbags to out-of-position occupants including small adult drivers. The small (5th percentile) female Hybrid III dummy positioned very close to the steering wheel/airbag assembly is the primary means currently available for assessing potential risk of severe chest and head/neck injury to out-of-position drivers. However, researchers have identified shortcomings with this dummy in reliably assessing potential interactions between the head/neck and the deploying airbag. Several noncrash airbag deployment tests in two late-model vehicles were conducted with a small female Hybrid III dummy. The dummy's spine had been modified to permit the upper torso to rotate forward without the buttocks leaving the driver seat in order to better simulate at-risk positions that a belted driver could achieve. Tests with the standard Hybrid III head and neck, even though supplemented with a foam neck shield as recommended by Melvin et al (1993), confirmed non-biofidelic interaction between the dummy and deploying airbag. Several modifications to the dummy's head skin and neck shield were tested to determine whether any gave more repeatable and biofidelic results. None of the head skin/neck shield was found to provide a reliably biofidelic indication of airbag inflation injury risk. (A)
Abstract