In collaboration with and at the request of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), this report examines the relationship between occupant compartment deformation and injury to the occupant. An evaluation criterion for roadside safety hardware is the extent of deformation and the accompanying intrusion into the occupant compartment. This is particularly an issue with pickup trucks in impacts with longitudinal barriers. For impacts with longitudinal barriers, deformation and intrusion are typically in the wheel well and floor pan areas. The FHWA has set a guideline of 15 cm (6 in.) as the pass/fail point providing the only quantitative threshold available for testing. Unfortunately, there is no established relationship between occupant compartment deformation and intrusion and injury severity. Thus, it is difficult to assess the guidelines set forth by FHWA. The subsequent work seeks to address this topic via data evaluation and statistical analyses. In this report, The National Automotive Sampling System – Crashworthiness Data System was used to examine intrusion magnitude thresholds and their associated injury severities. Significance testing on the intrusion-injury relationship was performed for a variety of objects contacted and intruding components. It was found that lower limb injuries were the most prevalent for the toe pan, forward of the A-pillar, and floor pan intrusions. Additionally, the risk of moderate injury severity and greater increases as the intrusion magnitude increases. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting