The influence of coach interior partitions and seat leaf-tables on occupant injury in a frontal collision

Abstract

For a typical coach, interior seats and partitions are considered as secondary collision objects in the event of a frontal collision. When a seat back has a deployable leaf-table, the additional effect of the leaf-table should be considered too. To investigate the effect of occupant collision with these objects, a full-scale frontal crash test of a coach was conducted with an impact velocity of 30 km/h. For virtual tests, a coupling model of partition-seat-occupants on a sled was established using the combination of LS-DYNA and MADYMO. It was validated using the full-scale test. The injury severity of the first row occupants was evaluated under different restraint conditions. Results show that occupants who are not belted and those with a lap belt only have the highest injury severity. A comparison of kinematics and injury characteristics between the first row occupants and the non-first row occupants was conducted to provide a comparative analysis.

Keywords:

• Coach
• interior design
• kinematics
• occupants injury
• restraint system
• first row occupants
• non-first row occupants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51505403 and 51605407; 2011 Program of Bus and Specialty Vehicle Research & Design Collaborative Innovation Centre in Fujian Province under Grant 2016AYF004; and the National High End Expert Programme under Grant GDT20153600065.