Development of a damping seat slide to reduce whiplash injury

Abstract

To prevent whiplash injury, a new seat slide was developed. In the case of a rear-end impact, the device allows the vehicle seat to slide backwards while damping this motion. Deformable steel profiles serve as damping elements. To activate the device, a trigger system is used which detects an acceleration threshold.

Sled test experiments were performed to analyse the behaviour of the new system. The tests were conducted to mimic rear-end collisions with a delta-V of 16 km/h. A BioRID dummy was used as a human surrogate. The results indicate the beneficial influence of the damping seat slide on the occupant kinematics. In particular, the so-called S-shape deformation of the neck assessed by the neck injury criterion (NIC) is reduced. Comparing a standard car seat with and without the damping seat slide, it was shown that the NIC is reduced by approximately 40 per cent. Hence it was shown that besides the head restraint and the recliner that are used in other whiplash protection systems, the seat slide has the potential to prevent whiplash injury.

Keywords

whiplash injury seat seat slide neck biomechanics

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

von Koch

Kullgren

Lie

Nygren

Tingvall

Soft tissue injury of the cervical spine in rearend and frontal car collisions. In Proceedings of the IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact, 1995, Brunnen, Switzerland, pp. 273–282.

Temming

Zobel

Frequence and risk of cervical spine distortion injuries in passenger car accidents: significance of human factors data. In Proceedings of the IRCOBI Conference, 1998, Göteborg, Sweden, pp. 219–233.

Hell

Langwieder

Zellmer

Biomechanics of cervical spine injuries in rear end car impacts, influence of car seats and possible evaluation criteria. In Proceedings of the IIWPG/IRCOBI Symposium, Isle of Man, 2001.

Ferrari

The Whiplash Encyclopedia, 1999 (Aspen Publishers Inc., Gaithersburg, PA).

Ono

Kaneoka

Imami

Influence of seat properties on human vertebral motion and head/neck/torso kinematics during rear end impacts. In Proceedings of the IRCOBI Conference, 1998, Göteborg, Sweden, pp. 303–321.

Eichberger

Steffan

Geigl

Svensson

Boström

Leinzinger

Darok

Evaluation of the applicability of the neck injury criterion (NIC) in rear end impacts on the basis of human subject tests. In Proceedings of the IRCOBI Conference, 1998, Göteborg, Sweden, pp. 153–161.

Yoganandan

Pintar

(Eds) Frontiers in Whiplash Trauma: Clinical and Biomechanical, 2000 (IOS Press, Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

Lundell

Jakobsson

Alfredsson

Lindström

Simonsson

The WHIPS seat—a car seat for improved protection against neck injuries in rear end impacts. In Proceedings of the 16th ESV Conference, 1998, Windsor, Canada, paper 98-S7-O-08.

Boström

Svensson

Aldman

Hansson

Háland

Lövsund

Seeman

Suneson

Säljö

Örtengren

A new neck injury criterion candidate based on injury findings in the cervical spinal ganglia after experimental neck extension trauma. In Proceedings of the IRCOBI Conference, 1996, Dublin, Ireland, pp. 123–136.

10.

Muser

Walz

Zellmer

Biomechanical significance of the rebound phase in low speed rear end impacts. In Proceedings of the IRCOBI Conference, 2000, Montpellier, France, pp. 411–424.

11.

Schmitt

K.-U.

Muser

Walz

Niederer

N_km—a proposal for a neck protection criterion for low speed rear-end impacts

Traffic Injury Prevention, 2002, 3 (2), 117–126.

12.

Viano

Davidsson

Neck displacements of volunteers, BioRID P3 and hybrid III in rear impacts: implications to whiplash assessment by a neck displacement criterion (NDC). In Proceedings of the IIWPG/IRCOBI Symposium, Isle of Man, 2001.

13.

Wiklund

Larsson

Saab active head restraint (SAHR)—seat design to reduce the risk of neck injuries in rear impacts. SAE paper 980297, 1998.

14.

Zellmer

Stamm

Seidenschwang

Brunner

Benefit from a neck protection system for aftermarket fitting. In Proceedings of the IRCOBI Conference, 2001, Isle of Man, UK, pp. 337–338.

15.

Muser

Zellmer

Walz

Hell

Langwieder

Test procedure for the evaluation of the injury risk to the cervical spine in a low speed rear end impact. Proposal for the ISO/TC22 N 2071 / ISO/TC22/SC10 (Collison Test Procedures), http://www.biomed.ee.ethz.ch/∼agu/.

16.

Muser

Walz

Schmitt

K.-U.

Injury criteria applied to seat comparison tests

Traffic Injury Prevention, 2002, 3 (3), 224–232.

17.

Human tolerance to impact conditions as related to motor vehicle design.

SAE paper J885-APR84, Warrendale, Pennsylvania, 1984.