Low severity rear impact simulations with an average male and female dummy model in Euro NCAP configurations

Rear impact can cause soft tissue neck injuries, also referred to as whiplash injuries, can lead to long term suffering. These injuries account for more than 60% of the costs of all injuries leading to permanent medical impairment for the insurance companies with respect to injuries sustained in vehicle crashes. Injury statistics has shown that females are subject to a higher risk of sustaining this type of injury than males and that recently developed anti whiplash systems protect females less than males. In this study, simulations were run with both an average male and a recently developed female dummy model seated in a vehicle seat, applying the three crash pulse severities of the Euro NCAP low severity rear impact test. In order to capture the loading on the neck, the motion of the neck, head and upper torso was analysed in addition to the accelerations and neck injury criteria, NIC._x000D_
Simulations with the male and the female dummy models showed differences related to both the crash severity and between the two dummies in a particular crash severity. For all three pulses the NIC values were higher for the EvaRID dummy than for the BioRID. The results of the study highlight the need for an extended testing matrix in order to capture the injury protection performances of a seat and that the assessment of the injury protection performances will differ if the tests are run with a model of an average male or female dummy_x000D_