Biofidelity Assessment of the 6-Year-Old ATDs in Lateral Impact

ABSTRACTObjectives: The objective of this study was to assess and compare the current lateral impact biofidelity of the shoulder, thorax, abdomen, and pelvis of the Q6, Q6s, and Hybrid III (HIII) 6-year-old anthropometric test devices (ATDs) through lateral impact testing. Methods: A series of lateral impact pendulum tests, vertical drop tests, and Wayne State University (WSU) sled tests were performed, based on the procedures detailed in ISO/TR 9790 (1999) and scaling to the 6-year-old using Irwin et al. (2002). The HIII used in this study was tested with the Ford-designed abdomen described in Rouhana (2006) and Elhagediab et al. (2006). The data collected from the three different ATDs was filtered using SAE J211 (SAE J211–1 2003), aligned using the methodology described by Donnelly and Moorhouse (2012), and compared for each body region tested (shoulder, thorax, abdomen, and pelvis). The biofidelity performance in lateral impact for the three ATDs was assessed against the scaled biofidelity targets published in Irwin et al. (2002), the abdominal biofidelity target suggested in van Ratingen et al. (1997), and the biofidelity targets published in Rhule et al. (2013). Regional and overall biofidelity rankings for each of the three ATDs were performed using both the ISO 9790 Biofidelity Rating System (ISO/TR 9790 1999) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) External Biofidelity Ranking System (BRS) (Rhule et al. 2013).Results: All three 6-year-old ATD's pelves were rated as least biofidelic of the four body regions tested, based on both the ISO and BRS biofidelity rating systems, followed by the shoulder, and abdomen, respectively. The thorax of all three ATDs was rated as the most biofidelic body region using the aforementioned biofidelity rating systems. The HIII 6-year-old ATD was rated last in overall biofidelity of the three tested ATDs, based on both rating systems. The Q6s ATD was rated as having the best overall biofidelity using both rating systems. Conclusions: All three ATDs are more biofidelic in the thorax and abdomen than the shoulder and pelvis, with the pelvis being the least biofidelic of all four tested body regions. None of the three tested 6-year-old ATDs had an overall ranking of 2.0 or less, based on the BRS ranking. Therefore, it is expected that none of the three ATDs would mechanically respond like a Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) in a lateral impact crash test based on this ranking system. With respect to the ISO biofidelity rating, the HIII dummy would be considered unsuitable, and the Q-series dummies would be considered marginal, for assessing side impact occupant protection.