Head Model for Impact Tolerance

Abstract

A human head model has been developed which may be useful in the study of impact attenuation of motor vehicle components and for possible use on an anthropomorphic dummy in vehicle crash studies. The model has a 1 piece self skinning urethane foam skull which is cast from a stiff rubber mold made by a slightly modified human skull, a silicon gel filled cranial cavity and a silicon rubber coated skin simulating cover. A solid silicon rubber rudimentary neck is held onto the head by means of a steel strand cable attached at the foramen magnum.

A triaxial accelerometer is mounted near the CG in a recess into the cranial cavity accessible through the underside of the mandible. The triaxial signals are amplified and then summed into a resultant by special circuitry for display or mathematical operation. It has not yet been shown to behave quantitatively and qualitatively as a frangible model in regard to its lacerative and skull fracture properties but preliminary results show that human linear acceleration cerebral concussion injury indices can be applied directly to model response.