Analysis on the driver’s upper and lower neck injury in the three stages of the frontal collision

Abstract

According to the driver’s moving posture in the frontal collision, the movement process of the driver could be divided into the three stages. At present, the researchers mainly focused on the neck injuries in the first stage of the driver movement, seldom involve the neck injuries in the second and third stage of the driver movement. The aim of this study is to investigate the neck injuries in the three stages comprehensively to expand the protective scope of the neck. Firstly, the simulation model of the driver restraint system was developed and validated. Secondly, parametric studies were conducted to investigate the influences of the design parameters of the driver restraint system on the occurrence times and the variation trends of the upper and lower neck injuries. Finally, the driver restraint system design parameters were optimized globally using the whole injury criterion of the neck WICN. The results indicate that the driver restraint system should be designed with the moderate vent leakage coefficient, inflator mass-flow rate and fabric permeability coefficient of airbag, and the smaller recliner rotational stiffness of seatback for reducing the neck injuries. After optimization, the peak anterior shear force of lower neck F₃ reduces by 27.2%, the peak extension bending moment of upper and lower neck M_upper, M_lower decline by 22.4% and 22.2% respectively, WICN decreases by 15.2%, and the other neck injury values also show a declining trend. At the moment, both the peak anterior shear force of lower neck F₃ and the peak extension bending moment of lower neck M_lower appear in the second stage, the peak extension bending moment of upper neck M_upper appears in the third stage, the other neck injury values appear in the first stage.

Keywords

Neck injury occurrence time driver movement three stages frontal collision

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Prasad

Laituri

Sullivan

. Estimation of AIS3+ thoracic injury risks of belted drivers in NASS frontal crashes. Proc Inst Mech Eng D 2004; 218(6): 591–610.

Vangi

Gulino

Fiorentino

, et al. Crash momentum index and closing velocity as crash severity index. Proc Inst Mech Eng D 2019; 233(13): 3318–3326.

Galasko

CSB

Murray

Pitcher

, et al. Neck sprains after road traffic accidents: a modern epidemic. Injury 1993; 24(3): 155–157.

Nygren Å. Injuries to car occupants - some aspects of the interior safety of cars a study of a five-year material from an insurance company. Acta Otolaryngol 1983; 95(sup395): 1–135.

Yang

Latouf

King

. Computer simulation of occupant neck response to airbag deployment in frontal impacts. J Biomech Eng 1992; 114(3): 327–331.

Kullgren

Krafft

Nygren

, et al. Neck injuries in frontal impacts: influence of crash pulse characteristics on injury risk. Accid Anal Prev 2000; 32(2): 197–205.

Youn

. Neck injuries in low speed frontal collisions. Int J Veh Des 2003; 32(1/2): 84.

Gavelina

Lindquist

Oldenburg

. Numerical studies concerning upper neck and head responses in frontal crashes with seat-integrated safety belts. Int J Crashworthiness 2007; 12(5): 465–479.

Lan

, et al. A simulation study on the effect of airbag on the injury of out-of-position occupant. Automot Eng 2009; 29: 766–770.

10.

Long

. Research on neck motion and neck load in the impact test. Commun Stand 2008; (174/175): 187–191.

11.

Zhang

Zhu

. Analysis on the extension bending moment of the dummy neck in the frontal collision. Shanghai Auto 2011; 4: 54–59.

12.

Yoganandan

Pintar

Halloway

, et al. Injuries, mechanisms, kinematics, and loading of head-neck-torso in small overlap frontal impacts. In: Ircobi Conference 2011, Krakow, Poland, 14–16 September 2011, paper no. IRC-11-510, pp.236–239. Zurich, Switzerland: International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury.

13.

Shang

. Research and application of the data curve relationship between dummy and safety belt in full frontal collision. Automobile Technol 2011; 11: 23–26.

14.

Al-Shammari

Neal-Sturgess

. An investigation into neck injuries in simulated frontal impacts. Proc Inst Mech Eng K J Multibody Dyn 2012; 226(3): 245–265.

15.

Thorbole

. Small occupant neck injury biomechanics in frontal crash: a study to address the variation in restraint performance with a conventional 3-point single loop belt system. SAE paper 2017-260003, 2017. https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2017-26-0003/

16.

Samaha

Prasad

Nix

. Development and validation of a Toyota Yaris MADYMO frontal occupant model. Working Paper 2013-W-004, 2013. Washington, DC: National Crash Analysis Center.

17.

Xiao

Wang

, et al. Optimal design of pre-triggering airbag system for occupant protection performance during frontal crashes. Proc Inst Mech Eng D 2018; 233(11): 2850–2862.

18.

Penning

. Acceleration injury of the cervical spine by hypertranslation of the head. Eur Spine J 1992; 1(1): 13–19.

19.

Ivancic

Pearson

Tominaga

, et al. Mechanism of cervical spinal cord injury during bilateral facet dislocation. Spine 2007; 32(22): 2467–2473.

20.

Ivancic

Panjabi

Ito

. Cervical spine loads and intervertebral motions during whiplash. Traffic Inj Prev 2006; 7(4): 389–399.

21.

Ivancic

. Mechanisms and mitigation of head and spinal injuries due to motor vehicle crashes. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2016; 46(10): 826–833.

22.

Wang

. Reliability-based design optimization for vehicle occupant protection system based on ensemble of metamodels. Struct Multidiscipl Optim 2015; 51(1): 533–546.