THOR, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) advanced frontal dummy, has been tested at Volvo and Autoliv to evaluate its response in different restraint conditions. The Hybrid III dummy has also been tested under the same conditions. At Volvo, a series of eight sled tests was conducted with THOR and Hybrid III seated side by side. Four of the tests were at 56 kph, while four were at 48 kph, with maximum decelerations of 30 G and 26 G respectively. At each speed, the dummy was seated in both the driver and passenger side positions. At the higher speed, on the driver side, the dummy was restrained by a 3-point belt and airbag, while on the passenger side, it was restrained by a 3-point belt only. At the lower speed, the dummy was restrained only by an airbag for both driver and passenger positions. At Autoliv, twelve tests were conducted with the dummy in the driver position and with a sled velocity of 56 kph and peak deceleration of 25 G. A 3-point belt system with and without force-limiting features was used in conjunction with an airbag. Each configuration was repeated three times. In this paper, the authors perform the following: (1) analyse the ability of THOR to discriminate between belt and belt/bag restraint environments and also standard belt versus force-limiting belt designs; (2) compare THOR responses and capabilities to those of HIII in equivalent environments; and (3) compare kinematics of the two dummies and evaluate repeatability based on the available tests. (A)
Samenvatting