Improvement of Q0 dummy restraint in lateral sled impacts regarding R129 criteria

ABSTRACT

Newborns are one of the most vulnerable car occupants in road accident. Collisions lead to serious head and neck injuries especially in side impact. This work consists in improving child restraint systems (CRS) efficiency in a regulatory context. Two consecutive Design of Experiments (DoEs) have been conducted in which Q0 dummy head, shoulder and pelvis were independently restrained by calibrated absorbers. The first study aims to understand interactions relative to Q0 dummy in side impact. A localised impact wall constituted of instrumented columns has been developed prior to experiments. The second DoE attempts to numerically design the best energy absorption materials to integrate in CRS lateral wings. For that purpose, a simplified finite element model of the experimental device has been developed, and then validated under Radioss® explicit code. Column stiffnesses were changed for all the 250 simulations with the objective to minimise both Head Performance Criterion (HPC) and head acceleration criteria.

KEYWORDS:

• Child restraint system
• newborn
• methodology
• side impact
• child safety
• finite element model

Additional information

Funding

The authors wish to thank the French Ministry of Industry with bpifrance and the Pays de la Loire Regional Council for their support in framework of ProETech project. This work was also supported by Id4Car and Novachild research clusters.