To study the influence of crash pulse duration on injury risk, data of 272 real life frontal collisions with recorded crash pulses was used. 371 restrained occupants were included. It was found that compared with acceleration, the duration has a limited influence on injury risk. The study shows that the average pulse duration in cases with AIS2+ injuries was 7% longer than in cases with AIS1 injuries. The corresponding difference for mean acceleration was 89%. It was found that the injury reduction effect of airbags was not negatively affected in crashes with a long duration. The results show that in the design of a crashworthy road transport system the design criteria should be based on acceleration, not on change in velocity, because long pulse duration was not found to have a big influence on injury risk. For the covering abstract see ITRD E121180.
Samenvatting