Prediction of thoracic injuries by means of accelerations, deflections and the viscous criteria derived from full-scale side-impacts.

In the document "DOC.TRANS/SC1WP 29/GRSP/R 48" a future European side-impact test procedure in addition to the existing United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 214 has been proposed. Besides the new "EURO-SID" dummy and instead of Thoracic Trauma Index (TTI) two new protection criteria are to be introduced: (1) the thorax compression (C); and (2) the viscous response (VC) defined by the rate sensitive torso compression. The German Forschungsgemeinschaft Automobiltechnik (FAT) carried out an additional analysis of the 1985 FAT/Heidelberg side impact test series. This case-by-case study produces meaningful compression versus time histories for the thorax. As seen in a previous FAT study seen in a previous FAT study the most influencing parameters are human factors like age and other anthropometrical dimensions. TTI, VC or C are of minor injury predictive quality. A reasonable estimate of thoracic and often associated abdominal injuries (hard thorax injuries) is given by the TTI. A single protection criterion for both thoracic and abdominal injuries is most appropriate in order to facilitate the procedure in compliance tests. (A)