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Biomechanics of Automotive Safety Restraints

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The Biomechanics of Impact Injury

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Abstract

There is an advertising poster put out in 1940 by the now defunct Packer Motors that suggested an unusual way for the right front passenger to protect him/herself before an impending crash. The ad suggested that the passenger in the “dead man’s seat” curl up in the footwell to ride out the crash. This is possible for a small person in a large car but it is not a practical suggestion because by the time the passenger manages to get into the footwell, the crash would have occurred already. The more practical form of protection is the use of automotive restraint systems. There are two forms of safety restraints. Seatbelts constitute the active restraint system which requires the occupant to actively participate in its use. There are forms of automatic seatbelts but so far their use has been limited. The most popular form of passive restraint is the airbag which is deployed at the time of the crash, hence the name passive restraint. Both systems afford good protection for the occupant but when used together, they are very effective in mitigating injuries and preventing fatalities. The biomechanics behind the use of these restraint systems is the subject of this chapter.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Albert I. King

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  1. Albert I. King
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Appendices

Questions for Chapter 18

  1. 18.1.

    The provision of airbags in automobiles is a method of injury control. It is

    1. [] (i)

      A form of environmental control

    2. [] (ii)

      A form of behavioral control

    3. [] (iii)

      A form of benevolent dictatorship

    4. [] (iv)

      A violation of our human rights

    5. [] (v)

      A Big Brother approach which is inconsistent with personal freedom

  2. 18.2.

    The use of the lap-shoulder belt as an occupant restraint has been shown to be

    1. [] (i)

      Marginally effective in reducing fatalities and injury severity

    2. [] (ii)

      Quite effective in reducing fatalities and injury severity

    3. [] (iii)

      Not effective in reducing fatalities and injury severity

    4. [] (iv)

      A cause for many serious injuries due to “side effects”

    5. [] (v)

      Hazardous to occupants who are tall and heavy

  3. 18.3.

    A driver who is properly restrained by a lap-shoulder belt is involved in an offset frontal crash. Assuming that the driver is not out of position,

    1. [] (i)

      He/she will sustain a moderate/severe head injury if the car is equipped with a driver side airbag

    2. [] (ii)

      He/she will not sustain a vertebral fracture, even if he/she is elderly and osteoporotic

    3. [] (iii)

      He/she will not impact his/her knees against the instrument panel, regardless of his/her height

    4. [] (iv)

      He/she will not sustain any foot and ankle injuries, even if there is footwell intrusion

    5. [] (v)

      None of the above

  4. 18.4.

    Unrestrained occupants involved in a full frontal crash are likely to sustain

    1. [] (i)

      Severe brain injuries

    2. [] (ii)

      Severe internal chest injuries

    3. [] (iii)

      Severe abdominal injuries

    4. [] (iv)

      Severe lower extremity injuries

    5. [] (v)

      All of the above

  5. 18.5.

    To provide optimal protection for the occupant of an automobile, the designer should ensure that

    1. [] (i)

      Both belt and airbag restraints are provided

    2. [] (ii)

      Compartment integrity be preserved to the maximum extent possible

    3. [] (iii)

      Instrument panels be padded with a very soft restraint

    4. [] (iv)

      (i) and (ii)

    5. [] (v)

      (i), (ii), and (iii)

  6. 18.6.

    The effect of airbag noise on human hearing

    1. [] (i)

      Has never been studied

    2. [] (ii)

      Has been studied and found to have a permanent effect on human hearing

    3. [] (iii)

      been studied and found to have a temporary effect on human hearing

    4. [] (iv)

      Has been studied and found to have no effect on human hearing

    5. [] (v)

      Has been studied and found to cause deafness in humans

  7. 18.7.

    A suitable human surrogate for the testing of the effects of noise on hearing is the cat. In order to conduct a test on cats, it is necessary to

    1. [] (i)

      Obtain a pre-exposure audiogram to determine its hearing threshold

    2. [] (ii)

      Obtain a pre-exposure electrocardiogram to determine its ability to withstand the shock

    3. [] (iii)

      Obtain several post-exposure audiograms to determine any shift in its hearing threshold

    4. [] (iv)

      (i) and (ii)

    5. [] (v)

      (i) and (iii)

  8. 18.8.

    Chance fractures occur in lap-belted occupants seated in the rear of an automobile because

    1. [] (i)

      The lap belt angle with respect to the horizontal is usually over 45°

    2. [] (ii)

      The lap belt is usually worn properly, at or below the anterior superior iliac spine

    3. [] (iii)

      The lap belt slides over the pelvis and becomes a fulcrum for the lumbar spine to flex over it

    4. [] (iv)

      The lap belt load is high enough to cause separation of the sacroiliac joint

    5. [] (v)

      The lap belt is not wide enough to prevent submarining

  9. 18.9.

    For side impact protection ,

    1. [] (i)

      Side door padding need to have a crush strength in excess of 19 psi

    2. [] (ii)

      Side torso airbags need to have an initial stiffness of no greater than 10 psi

    3. [] (iii)

      A four-inch air space between the side door and the torso of the occupant is more than adequate

    4. [] (iv)

      Use the cheapest type of Styrofoam for side door padding

    5. [] (v)

      It is more than adequate if the requirements of FMVSS 214 are met

  10. 18.10.

    The best way to design a headrest which can minimize whiplash-induced injuries is to:

    1. [] (i)

      Use a dummy with a seven-segment cervical spine

    2. [] (ii)

      Design a headrest which can mechanically move forward during the impact

    3. [] (iii)

      Place the headrest as close to the head as possible

    4. [] (iv)

      Make all seat backs rigid so they will not break upon impact

    5. [] (v)

      None of the above

  11. 18.11.

    In rollover crashes, the most frequent cause of death or severe injury is:

    1. [] (i)

      Severe roof crush

    2. [] (ii)

      Total or partial ejection from the vehicle

    3. [] (iii)

      Compression-flexion neck injuries due to head impact with vehicular interior structures

    4. [] (iv)

      (i) and (iii)

    5. [] (v)

      (ii) and (iii)

  12. 18.12.

    To prevent partial ejection of occupants in a rollover, one of the solutions is

    1. [] (i)

      To change the side window glass to a high penetration resistant glass used in windshields

    2. [] (ii)

      To provide a stiff curtain airbag for each side window so that the head cannot get past the window sill

    3. [] (iii)

      To eliminate all side windows and sun roofs

    4. [] (iv)

      To have only one seat in the center of each row of seats so that no belted occupant can reach out past the window sill

    5. [] (v)

      To lower the center of mass of the car so that it cannot rollover

  13. 18.13.

    The neck is frequently injured in rollover crashes. The most frequent injury is cervical vertebral fracture without cord injury. The reason why this is a frequent injury is

    1. [] (i)

      There is a lot of whipping of the neck in a rollover crash

    2. [] (ii)

      Roof crush causes neck compression

    3. [] (iii)

      The occupant dives towards the roof rail causing the head to impact the roof rail

    4. [] (iv)

      The occupant’s head hits the roof when the vehicle is upside down

    5. [] (v)

      None of the above

  14. 18.14.

    The rollover model by Hu (2007)

    1. [] (i)

      modeled both the vehicle and the occupant

    2. [] (ii)

      used a MADYMO model for the occupant and a finite element model for the vehicle

    3. [] (iii)

      was validated against static roof crush data

    4. [] (iv)

      can only be used to simulate either the driver or the right front passenger

    5. [] (v)

      (i) and (iii)

  15. 18.15.

    There are several types of rollovers. They are difficult to reproduce experimentally because

    1. [] (i)

      vehicular motion is complex and random

    2. [] (ii)

      rollovers have different initiation mechanisms

    3. [] (iii)

      can involve multiple rolls

    4. [] (iv)

      the vehicle undergoes multi-directional linear and angular accelerations

    5. [] (v)

      All of the above

Answers to Problems by Chapter

Prob

Ans

1

(i)

2

(ii)

3

(v)

4

(v)

5

(iv)

6

(iii)

7

(v)

8

(iii)

9

(ii)

10

(iii)

11

(v)

12

(ii)

13

(iii)

14

(v)

15

(v)

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King, A.I. (2018). Biomechanics of Automotive Safety Restraints. In: The Biomechanics of Impact Injury. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49792-1_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49792-1_18

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-49790-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-49792-1

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