Kinematic Comparison of the Hybrid III and Q-Series Pediatric ATDs to Pediatric Volunteers in Low-Speed Frontal Crashes.

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that the rigid pediatric ATD spine may not adequately represent the relatively mobile, multi-segmented spine of the child and thus may lead to important differences in the head trajectory of the ATD relative to a human. Recently we compared the responses of size-matched child volunteers to the Hybrid III 6-year-old ATD in low-speed frontal sled tests, illustrating differences in head, spinal, and pelvic kinematics as well as seating environment reaction loads. This paper expands this line of work to include comparisons between size-matched restrained child volunteers to the Hybrid III 10-year-old and the Q-series 6 and 10-year-old ATDs tested in the same low speed frontal environment. A 3-D near-infrared video target tracking system quantified the position of markers on the ATDs and volunteers(head top, nasion, external auditory meatus, C4, T1, and pelvis). Angular velocity of the head, seat belt forces, and reaction loads on the seat pan and foot rest were also measured. The Hybrid III 6 and Q6 exhibited significantly greater belt reaction loads compared to the pediatric volunteers, which exhibited greater seat pan shear. Compared to children, the Hybrid III 6 exhibited increased head rotation and similar head top and pelvic excursion, whereas the Q6 exhibited reductions in all three metrics. The Hybrid III 10 and Q10 ATDs exhibited reaction loads similar to the volunteers; however, excursions and head rotation were significantly reduced compared to volunteers. All pediatric ATDs exhibited significant reductions in C4 and T1excursions compared to the volunteers, likely due to the rigidity of the ATD thoracic spine. These analyses provide insight into aspects of ATD biofidelity in low-speed crash environments and illustrate differences in responses of the Hybrid III and Q-series pediatric ATDs.