Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2004--Chemnitz. / Erscheinungsjahr an der Haupttitelstelle: 2003.

This paper describes a three part analysis to characterize the interaction between the female upper extremity and a helicopter cockpit side airbag system and to develop dynamic hyperextension injury criteria for the female elbow joint. Part I involved a series of 10 experiments with an original Army Black Hawk helicopter side airbag. A 5th percentile female Hybrid III instrumented upper extremity was used to demonstrate side airbag upper extremity loading. Two out of the 10 tests resulted in high elbow bending moments of 128 Nm and 144 Nm. Part II included dynamic hyperextension tests on 24 female cadaver elbow joints. The energy source was a drop tower utilizing a three-point bending configuration to apply elbow bending moments matching the previously conducted side airbag tests. Post-test necropsy showed that 16 of the 24 elbow joint tests resulted in injuries. Injury severity ranged from minor cartilage damage to more severe joint dislocations and transverse fractures of the distal humerus. Peak elbow bending moments ranged from 42.4 Nm to 146.3 Nm. Peak bending moment proved to be a significant indicator of any elbow injury (p=0.02) as well as elbow joint dislocation (p=0.01). Logistic regression analyses were used to develop single and multivariate injury risk functions. Using peak moment data for the entire test population, a 50% risk of obtaining any elbow injury was found at 56 Nm while a 50% risk of sustaining an elbow joint dislocation was found at 93 Nm for the female population. These results indicate that the peak elbow bending moments achieved in Part I are associated with a greater than 90% risk for elbow injury. Subsequently, the airbag was re-designed in an effort to mitigate this as well as the other upper extremity injury risks. Part III assessed the enhanced side airbag module to ensure injury risks had been reduced prior to implementing the new system. To facilitate this, 12 enhanced side airbag deployments were conducted using the same procedures as Part I. Results indicate that the re-designed side airbag has effectively mitigated elbow injury risks induced by the original side airbag design. It is anticipated that this study will provide researchers with additional injury criteria for assessing upper extremity injury risk caused by both military and automotive side airbag deployments. / Master of Science

Introduction: Approximately 1.25 million people globally are killed in traffic accidents yearly. To achieve the UN Global Goal of a 50% reduction of fatal and serious injuries in 2020 a safer infrastructure, as well as new safety technologies, will be needed. Side crashes represent 20% of all serious and 25 % of fatal injuries. The overall aim of this thesis is to provide guidelines for improved side impact protection. First, by characterizing nearside crashes and injury outcome, including injuries from the farside occupant, for non-senior and senior front seat occupants. Second, to determine whether the WorldSID dummy provides opportunities for improved in-crash occupant protection. And third, by relating in-crash occupant protection to pre-crash countermeasures, to explore a holistic approach for side crashes using the integrated safety chain from safe driving to crash. Methods: NASS/CDS data for both older and modern vehicles was used to provide exposure, incidence, and risk for fatal injury as well as detailed injury distribution and crash characteristics. The WorldSID dummy was compared to Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) in impactor tests at high and low severities to demonstrate the possibilities of this tool. Crash tests were performed to evaluate WorldSID crash test dummy assessments of injuries found in the NASS/CDS data. The integrated safety chain was used to demonstrate how to evaluate occupant protection in side crashes from a larger perspective, involving infrastructure and Automated Emergency Braking. Result: Most side crashes occur at intersections. The head, thorax, and pelvis are the most frequently injured body regions, and seniors have a higher risk for rib fractures compared to non-seniors. The WorldSID dummy response was similar to the PMHS response at the higher impact speed, but not at the lower. In conjunction with improved airbags infrastructural change, and the use of Automated Emergency Braking, can effectively reduce the number of fatalities and injured occupants in side impacts. Conclusion: Future focus for side impact protection should be on intersection crashes, improved occupant protection for senior occupants, and protection for and from the farside occupant, reducing injury risk to the head, thorax, and pelvis. The WorldSID dummy has the ability to reproduce humanlike responses in lateral and oblique impacts. However, at a low crash severity, chest deflection could be underestimated, which must be taken into consideration when evaluating, for example, pre-crash inflated side airbags. Analyzing nearside crashes using the integrated safety chain shows that speed management by means of roundabouts is an efficient countermeasure reducing the number of injurious crashes, as well as reducing variations in crash severity. In combination with an Automated Emergency Braking a large part of side crashes could be avoided or crash severity mitigated. Rather than developing structures and airbags for high-speed crashes, it is important to consider alternative countermeasures. Hence the need for an integrated approach to side impacts.

Every year approximately 400 000 pedestrians are killed worldwide in road related injuries where children and elderly are the most exposed age groups. The design of the front-end of a vehicle and the structural stiffness have a significant influence on the kinematics and injury risks of the pedestrian body. To create a clearance between the rigid hood structure and the hood, the hood is lifted. A lifted hood does however not provide protection over the cowl, windscreen and A-pillar areas. This study is performed at Autoliv Sverige AB and the purpose is to examine how fast the hood can be lifted 100 mm using a pedestrian protection airbag. The airbag give an extended protection while covering the cowl, windscreen and A-pillar areas. A concept generation session was performed where modifications of the current pedestrian protection airbag, for a faster hood lift, were proposed. The generated concepts proceeded to a concept screening session where the Autoliv evaluation matrix was used. The selected concepts went further to static testing where the performance of each concept was tested. The performance include the lift time of 100 mm for the most rearward section of the hood, positioning of the cushion and pressure distribution. The tests were carried out in a room temperature environment. To conclude the thesis work, one winning concept could not be obtained. Two concepts excelled themselves from all the concepts and a difference in the performances between these two concepts could not be found. In this thesis no calculations on costs such as material costs and manufacturing costs has been made. This can be the major aspect on choosing one winning concept but due to the fact that there is no time for a cost analysis in this thesis, the PPA development team will take over.

<p>This thesis develops an algorithm for tracking the boundary of an airbag throughout an image sequence. The algorithm is designed to work even if various problematic features, e.g. objects in the background, are present in the image. The work is built on an existing commercially available image processing and analysis suite targeted at the automotive industry. The software suite runs on standard PC hardware. </p><p>Firstly, improvements to the airbag tracking algorithm already available in the suite are considered. Testing reveals that these measures are not sufficient to overcome the problems posed by the problematic image sequences. </p><p>A new tracking algorithmis then proposed. It consists of a Canny edge detector, optional steps to enhance feature detection by removing edges in the background and edges interior to the boundary of the airbag and finally an active contour. The role of the active contour is to produce a closed curve while imposing smoothness constraints on the detected boundary. The active contour is in each frame initialized by linearly extrapolating the contour from previous frames. </p><p>The algorithm works very well and it is fast enough to run on slower machines than was initially targeted.</p>

<p>De triggers som idag används i Autoliv BKIs laboratorium har till uppgift att synkronisera signalerna vid simulering av krock som en intern kvalitetskontroll av produktionen. De sköter utösning av airbags och start av höghastighetskameror.</p><p>Då Autoliv har flera modeller av krockkuddar används idag olika triggers och man har därför som önskemål att utveckla ett nytt system som skulle kunna ersätta de nuvarande systemen och som kan användas vid samtliga kvalitetstest.</p><p>Projektet resulterade i en testad prototyp som inkluderar hårdvara, mjukvara, samt CAD-ritningar till en färdig produkt.</p>

This thesis develops an algorithm for tracking the boundary of an airbag throughout an image sequence. The algorithm is designed to work even if various problematic features, e.g. objects in the background, are present in the image. The work is built on an existing commercially available image processing and analysis suite targeted at the automotive industry. The software suite runs on standard PC hardware. Firstly, improvements to the airbag tracking algorithm already available in the suite are considered. Testing reveals that these measures are not sufficient to overcome the problems posed by the problematic image sequences. A new tracking algorithmis then proposed. It consists of a Canny edge detector, optional steps to enhance feature detection by removing edges in the background and edges interior to the boundary of the airbag and finally an active contour. The role of the active contour is to produce a closed curve while imposing smoothness constraints on the detected boundary. The active contour is in each frame initialized by linearly extrapolating the contour from previous frames. The algorithm works very well and it is fast enough to run on slower machines than was initially targeted.

According to WHO, Sweden should aim to reduce unintentional fatalities, particularly vehicle-related injuries, by 25% by the year 2000. The aim of this thesis was to analyze vehicle-related injuries and injury events, especially the contributory effects of alcohol and disease and the injury reducing capacity of helmets and airbags in order to point out some preventive measures. Alcohol: Alcohol is the main contributing factor in fatal traffic crashes. In a study on 121 traffic fatalities in Washtenaw County, Michigan, USA, different sources of data for alcohol involvement were compared. In police reports alcohol involvement was found in 51% of the fatalities, in autopsy reports in 63%, and in hospital emergency records in 91%. To avoid bias in the estimation of the fraction of alcohol-related fatalities, it is important to routinely investigate all severe and fatally injured cases in traffic crashes, ideally as soon as possible after the crash. In a study on traumatic car fatalities (n=597) in northern Sweden, 58% of the single vehicle (SV) drivers were inebriated (multi-vehicle, MV 10%), the mean blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 1.9 g /l (MV 1.6 g/1), and liver steatosis was found in 37% of the cases (MV 2%). Increased BAC was associated with fatty liver, indicating chronic alcohol abuse. To reduce injuries among these types of victims, passive protection is of great importance. Disease: Autopsied drivers (n=126) in northern Sweden who had died from natural causes in traffic were studied. This fraction was 25% of all driver fatalities. Cardiovascular causes of death were found in 96% of the deceased. Neither the victims nor other occupants suffered severe traumatic injuries. A minority of the victims had experienced previous symtoms of disease. Further restriction of individuals with, for example, cardiovascular diseases would probably have no significant impact on traffic safety since at present the identification of high-risk individuals is difficult. Helmets: Head injuries in 948 injured bicyclists, including 105 fatalities, were analysed. Head/face injuries were found in 64% of the fatal and 38% of the nonfatal cases with a median age of 55 years and 18 years, respectively. Head trauma was mostly blunt with only a few severe face injuries. Of the nonfatal cases with head injuries, 48% might have had an injury reduction effect if a bicycle helmet had been used, compared with 67% of the fatalities with head injuries. A helmet with a hard shell, chin cover, accurate retention system, that reduces rotation and translation impact is recommended. To increase helmet use among bicyclists, a law is probably the most effective measure as has been shown for motorcyclists. However, head injuries were less frequent among snowmobile riders than among bicyclist and motorcyclist riders, and in most cases the snowmobile riders with head injuries but without helmet had broken other traffic laws, indicating that in this crash category there was a low compliance to compulsary laws. Airbags: In a field study of car crashes where an airbag deployed, the effectiveness of the bag, as well as injuries to the skin and eye from the deployment of the bag, is reported. In laboratory tests with airbag deployment on human volunteers, tethering was found to eliminate skin abrasion within a distance of 250-300 mm. At a distance of 225 mm, the folding technique had the optimal influence on abrasions followed by a marginal effect of tethering. However, injuries due to airbag deployment must be considered as negligible compared with the airbag's role in reduction of severe and fatal injuries. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1993, härtill 7 uppsatser.</p> / digitalisering@umu

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, 2016. / Submitted by Raquel Almeida (raquel.df13@gmail.com) on 2017-05-03T17:19:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_ViníciusdeOliveiraLima_TERMO.pdf: 919576 bytes, checksum: 233b7c9fd420417cf0e317b4057c8cbd (MD5) / Rejected by Patrícia Nunes da Silva (patricia@bce.unb.br), reason: Arrumar autores e assuntos on 2017-05-09T13:59:54Z (GMT) / Submitted by Raquel Almeida (raquel.df13@gmail.com) on 2017-05-09T14:32:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_ViníciusdeOliveiraLima.pdf: 78943126 bytes, checksum: 65bde5cdc5f5e644055fd80b771440d0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana (raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2017-05-29T21:56:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_ViníciusdeOliveiraLima.pdf: 78943126 bytes, checksum: 65bde5cdc5f5e644055fd80b771440d0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-29T21:56:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_ViníciusdeOliveiraLima.pdf: 78943126 bytes, checksum: 65bde5cdc5f5e644055fd80b771440d0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-29 / O presente trabalho é um estudo aos módulos de airbag veiculares, diante das importantes informações que esse dispositivo pode fornecer, sobre um acidente, principalmente aos peritos da área. Conhecido pelo termo técnico EDR (Event Data Recorder), a variedade desse tipo de equipamento é grande e por isso esse trabalho teve como foco um modelo específico comum ao Renault/Scenic. Foi criado um programa para leitura do módulo objeto de estudo e feito alguns experimentos para acionar seu algoritmo de deflagração das bolsas. Além da escassa literatura no assunto, o resultado desses experimentos foi debatido e colocado em questão para criação de um equipamento que pudesse auxiliar os peritos na extração de dados, como a velocidade, no momento de um acidente. O equipamento desenvolvido, de baixo custo e simples, é capaz de capturar dados de aceleração e giro nos instantes que antecedem e sucedem a colisão. Com esses dados é possível traçar gráficos ou ainda visualizar o comportamento do veículo em uma simulação tridimensional. / The present work is a study in the matter of airbag modules, which can give important information about an accident, especially to forensics experts. Known as the technical name of EDR (Event Data Recorder), the variety of this equipment is huge and because of that, this work is dedicated to a Renault/Scenic typical module. A code was built to read it and some experiments were made to enable its deployment algorithm. Beyond the poor literature in the matter, the results of the experiments started a discussion that made the development of a new equipment that could be useful for forensics experts extract data like velocity in a accident, for example. The projected device is cheap and simple and captures acceleration and gyro seconds before and after the collision. With these values, we are able to plot graphics or even 3D simulations.

The combination of airbag and seatbelt is considered to be the most effective vehicle safety system. However, despite the widespread availability of airbags and a belt use rate of over 85% U.S. drivers involved in crashes continue to be at risk of serious thoracic injury. One hypothesis is that this risk may be due to the lack of airbag deployment or the airbag \'bottoming-out\' in some cases, causing drivers to make contact with the steering. The objective of this study is to determine the influence of various advanced airbags on occupant injury risk in frontal automobile crash. The analysis is based upon cases extracted from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System (NASS/CDS) database for case years 1993-2011. The approach was to compare the frontal crash performance of advanced airbags against depowered airbags, first generation airbags, and vehicles with no airbag equipped. NASS/CDS steering wheel deformation measurements were used to identify cases in which thoracic injuries may have been caused due to steering wheel impact and deformation. The distributions of injuries for all cases were determined by body region and injury severity. These distributions were used to compare and contrast injury outcomes for cases with frontal airbag deployment for both belted and unbelted drivers. Among frontal crash cases with belted drivers, observable steering wheel deformation occurred in less than 4% of all cases, but accounted for 29% of all serious-to-fatally injured belted drivers and 28% of belted drivers with serious thoracic injuries (AIS3+). Similarly, observable steering wheel deformation occurred in approximately 13% of all cases with unbelted drivers involved in frontal crashes, but accounted for 58% of serious-to-fatally injured unbelted drivers and 66% of unbelted drivers with serious thoracic injuries. In a frontal crash, the factors which were statistically significant in the probability of steering wheel deformation were: longitudinal delta-V, driver weight, and driver belt status. Seatbelt pre-tensioner and load limiters were not significant factors in influencing steering wheel deformation. Furthermore, belted drivers in vehicles with no airbag equipped were found to have 3 times higher odds of deforming the steering wheel, as compared to driver in similar crash scenario. Similarly, unbelted drivers were found to have 2 times greater odds of deforming the steering wheel in vehicles with no airbags equipped as compared to vehicles with advanced airbag. The result also showed no statistically significant difference in the odds of deforming the steering wheel between depowered and advanced airbag. After controlling for crash severity, and driver weight, the study showed that crashes with steering wheel deformation results in greater odds of injury in almost all body regions for both belted and unbelted drivers. Moreover, steering wheel deformation is more likely to occur in unbelted drivers than belted drivers, as well as higher severity crashes and with heavier drivers. Another potential factor in influencing driver crash injury is the knee airbag. After comparing the odds of injury between vehicles with and without knee airbags equipped, belted drivers in vehicles equipped with knee airbag were found to have statistically smaller odds of injury in the thorax, abdomen, and upper extremity. Similarly, the findings showed that unbelted drivers benefited from knee airbag through statistically significant lower odds of chest and lower extremity injuries. However, the results should be considered with caution as the study is limited by its small sample of vehicles with knee airbags. / Master of Science