Citation

Horsch JD, Culver CC. Proc. Stapp Car Crash Conf. 1979; 23: 799-823.

Affiliation

GM, Warren, Mich

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Society of Automotive Engineers SAE)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Conceptually, a steering wheel mounted air cushion is inflated before the upper torso of the driver significantly interacts with the cushion. However, this might not be the case for some seating postures or vehicle crash environments which could cause the driver to significantly interact with an inflating cushion. This paper reports on experiments that utilized several environments to study the interaction between an inflating driver air cushion and mechanical surrogates. In these laboratory environments, the measured responses of mechanical surrogates increased with diminishing distance between the surrogate's sternum and the steering wheel mounted air cushion.