Session: 07-01-01: Injury Risk Assessment due to Blunt Impact

Paper Number: 165445

Evaluation of Far-Side Occupant Injuries and Interactions With Near-Side Occupants Under FMVSS214 Side Impact Test Requirements 

Over the past two decades, there has been extensive research conducted on the dynamics and potential injuries to the occupants positioned at the struck-side or near-side in the automobile side impact accidents. With the development of strong vehicle body structures, such as impact door beams increased rigidity of the doors while absorbing the forces and distributing them in an event of a side impact crash. The forces distributed minimize the intrusion and significantly reduce the risk of serious and fatal injuries to occupants inside the passenger compartment. In addition to that, by introducing passive safety systems such as airbags and seatbelts protect the occupants in the event of a crash. These measures have been proven to effectively reduce the potential injuries and deaths to the near-side occupants or drivers. The regulation on automotive safety and occupant protection in the side impacts require to examine these potential injuries only to the near-side occupant/driver. However, real-world data reveals a concerning trend with the occupants seated away from the near-side, referred to as “far-side”, could also sustain serious injuries in side impact collisions. This highlights a gap in current safety regulations and underlines the need for further study on the injury patterns and potential risks involved for the far-side occupants. This research aims to address the gap on how the far-side occupants’ crash responses and injury potential are affected by a range of factors, including their individual biomechanics and by body-to-body contact with near-side occupants in side impact crashes. The computational methods are utilized to examine injuries to the occupants inside a passenger car and to investigate the role of seatbelts when both near-side and far-side occupants are involved. Non-linear finite element models of a Toyota Yaris 2010 compact car, a Moving Deformable Barrier (MDB), a EuroSID-2 dummy with rib extensions (ES-2RE 50% Adult Male) and Three-point seatbelts are considered to simulate the near-side and far-side occupants under the FMVSS214 regulatory standard for side impact collisions. The dynamic responses of occupants are captured and compared the occupant kinematics, injury parameters for both belted and unrestrained occupants. ES-2RE dummies equipped with accelerometers to evaluate rib deflections, pelvic accelerations, thoracic trauma index (TTI), viscous criterion (VC), and head injury criteria (HIC). These parameters have the injury pass-fail threshold values to identify the severity of injury levels to the dummies. The preliminary results suggest the differences in dynamics and injury potential to the near-side and far-side occupants individually and their interactions when both are present in a side impact collision.

Presenting Author: Subrahmanya Surya Teja Kalaga Google LLC

Presenting Author Biography: A graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Wichita State University, with research in the area of Crashworthiness, Occupant Safety, and Injury Biomechanics. I've performed research using computer numerical simulations in the High-performance computing & Cloud environments. I have 7+ years of experience in the industry, worked for an Automotive in the past, and currently working at Google Chicago office.

Authors:

Subrahmanya Surya Teja Kalaga Wichita State University
Durga Venkata Suresh Koppisetty Wichita State University
Hamid M. Lankarani Wichita State University