Ongoing developments in crash safety research, regulations and product enhancements have indicated the need for a review on child dummy design philosophies. Late 1991, the TNO Crash-Safety Research Centre started a research program including a review on child anthropometry, a literature study on biomechanical properties of children and a study on scaling techniques. The objective of this research program is to establish sets of requirements for basic child dummy "design characteristics". The main design characteristics covered in the paper are anthropometry and biofidelity. The anthropometry study resulted in a new TNO database on child anthropometry and includes published data om more than 75 parameters. The literature study on biomechanical properties revealed a limited set of data on material properties. An even more limited set of data on body part responses and tolerance levels was found. (A)
Abstract