Thoracic Injury Metrics With Side Air Bag: Stationary and Dynamic Occupants

Abstract

Objective: Injury risk from side air bag deployment has been assessed using stationary out-of-position occupant test protocols. However, stationary conditions may not always represent real-world environments. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of torso side air bag deployment on close-proximity occupants, comparing a stationary test protocol with dynamic sled conditions.

Methods: Chest compression and viscous metrics were quantified from sled tests utilizing postmortem human specimens (PMHS) and computational simulations with 3 boundary conditions: rigid wall, ideal air bag interaction, and close-proximity air bag deployment. PMHS metrics were quantified from chestband contour reconstructions. The parametric effect of ΔV on close-proximity occupants was examined with the computational model.

Results: PMHS injuries suggested that close-proximity occupants may sustain visceral trauma, which was not observed in occupants subjected to rigid wall or ideal air bag boundary conditions. Peak injury metrics were also elevated with close-proximity occupants relative to other boundary conditions. The computational model indicated decreasing influence of air bag on compression metrics with increasing ΔV. Air bag influence on viscous metric was greatest with close-proximity occupants at ΔV = 7.0 m/s, at which the response magnitude was greater than linear summation of metrics resulting from rigid impact and stationary close-proximity interaction.

Conclusions: These results suggest that stationary close-proximity occupants may not represent the only scenario of side air bag deployment harmful to the thoraco-abdominal region. The sensitivity of the viscous metric and implications for visceral trauma are also discussed.

Keywords:

• Side air bags
• Side impact
• Biomechanics
• Chest injury
• Modeling
• Sled testing

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported in part by NIH Grant (R01AG024443), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program, and Veterans Affairs Medical Research.