Citation

Kemper AR, Stitzel J, Duma SM, Matsuoka F, Masuda M. Proc. Int. Tech. Conf. Enhanced Safety Vehicles 2005; 2005: 11p.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, In public domain, Publisher National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Accurate biofidelity for side impact dummies is crucial in order to accurately predict injury of human occupants. One such dummy is the SIDIIs, which represents the 5th percentile human female. A recent area of concern is the biofidelity of the upper extremity of side impact test dummies. Since the upper arm serves as a load path to the thorax, the response characteristics of the upper extremity can influence the thoracic response in side impact test dummies. However, there are currently no biofidelity evaluations with respect to the characteristics of the arm its self. The purpose of the study was to characterize the biomechanical properties of male and female humeri and to assess the biofidelity of the SID-IIs and a modified SID-IIs upper extremity. Results from two types of tests are presented. First, whole bone three-point bending tests were performed on eight isolated humeri from male and female human cadavers at static and dynamic loading rates 0.01 m/s and 3.0 m/s. Second, a series of compression tests were performed at two dynamic rates, 2 m/s and 4m/s, on a total of eight male and female humeri with all soft tissues attached. Then matched compression tests were preformed on the SID-IIs and the modified SIDIIs humerus segment. The impact direction for all tests was from lateral to medial in order to simulate a side impact collision. All test results and biofidelity corridors are presented in the full paper. The test results show that for both the SID-IIs and modified SID-IIs, the force vs. deflection response transitions from a linear response to an exponential response at deflections of approximately 15 mm and 25 mm, respectively. The male and female human humeri exhibited a similar trend but to a lesser extent. However, the force vs. deflection response of the modified SID-IIs upper extremity was more representative to that of the female human humeri then the original SID-IIs upper extremity. For example, the linear stiffness corridor from the 2m/s humerus compression tests was between 79.17 kN/m and 86.36 kN/m. For the same testing speed, the modified SID-IIs had a linear stiffness of 71.78 kN/m, while the SID-IIs had a linear stiffness of 183.9 kN/m. In summary, it is recommended that the modified SID-IIs upper limb should be used in place of the current SID-IIs upper limb in order to improve the biofidelity of the thoracic measurements of the SID-IIs.