Development and refinement of abdominal-response corridors. Project D2a, Development of a reusable, rate-sensitive abdomen.

Abstract

This study was conducted in support of the development of a new, reusable, biofidelic abdomen for the Hybrid III ATD in Project D2b. The goals were to resolve discrepancies and fill in some of the gaps with regard to the biomechanical response of the human abdomen to dynamic loading in the automotive environment. Three types of impact tests were conducted. Following a review and reanalysis of the data in the literature on abdominal impact response, rigid-bar tests were performed into the mid and upper abdomen of unembalmed instrumented human cadavers using different impactor speeds. Most tests were conducted using a free-back condition, but several tests were conducted using a fixedback condition to examine the effects of body mass and spinal flexion on the response. Force-deflection corridors were developed and compared to those previously established by other researchers. The second type of test involved dynamic belt loading of the unembalmed cadaver abdomen at the lower and midabdomen regions. The results were used to establish new abdominal force-deflection corridors for belt loading. The third type of test conducted involved static deployment of passenger frontal-impact airbags into the closely positioned abdomen. Three airbag tests were conducted using three unembalmed cadavers. The deflection-time histories were used to guide the development of a repeatable high-speed surrogate airbag loading device that uses a low-mass cylinder to simulate close-proximity passenger airbag loading of the abdomen. This device was used to conduct out-of-position, airbag-loading tests into the cadaver abdomen and to develop force-deflection corridors for this type of abdomen loading.