Neutral buoyancy testing of a shuttle orbiter crew compartment

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Enhanced Accessibility for People with Disabilities Living in Urban Areas

[Excerpt] People with disabilities constitute a significant proportion of the poor in developing countries. If internationally agreed targets on reducing poverty are to be reached, it is critical that specific measures be taken to reduce the societal discrimination and isolation that people with disabilities continue to face. Transport is an important enabler of strategies to fight poverty through enhancing access to education, employment, and social services. This project aims to further the understanding of the mobility and access issues experienced by people with disabilities in developing countries, and to identify specific steps that can be taken to start addressing problems. A major objective of the project is to compile a compendium of guidelines that can be used by government authorities, advocacy groups, and donor/loan agencies to improve the access of people with disabilities to transport and other services in urban areas

Evaluation of a sudden brake warning system: Effect on the response time of the following driver

This study used a video-based braking simulation dual task to carry out a preliminary evaluation of the effect of a sudden brake warning system (SBWS) in a leading passenger vehicle on the response time of the following driver. The primary task required the participants (N = 25, 16 females, full NZ license holders) to respond to sudden braking manoeuvres of a lead vehicle during day and night driving, wet and dry conditions and in rural and urban traffic, while concurrently performing a secondary tracking task using a computer mouse. The SBWS in the lead vehicle consisted of g-force controlled activation of the rear hazard lights (the rear indicators flashed), in addition to the standard brake lights. Overall, the results revealed that responses to the braking manoeuvres of the leading vehicles when the hazard lights were activated by the warning system were 0.34 s (19%) faster compared to the standard brake lights. The SBWS was particularly effective when the simulated braking scenario of the leading vehicle did not require an immediate and abrupt braking response. Given this, the SBWS may also be beneficial for allowing smoother deceleration, thus reducing fuel consumption. These preliminary findings justify a larger, more ecologically valid laboratory evaluation which may lead to a naturalistic study in order to test this new technology in ‘real world’ braking situations

Fetus safety in motor vehicle accidents

Motor vehicle accidents are statistically the major cause of accidental severe injuries for pregnant women and fetuses fatality. Volunteers, post mortem human surrogates, anthropomorphic crash test devices and computational occupant models are used to improve human safety in motor vehicle accidents. However, due to the ethical issues, pregnant women and their fetuses cannot be used as volunteers or post mortem human surrogates to investigate the effects of crashes on them. The only anthropomorphic test device representing pregnant women is very limited in design and lacks a fetus. There is no computational pregnant occupant model with a fetus other than 'Expecting'. This thesis focuses on understanding the risk of placental abruption for pregnant drivers involved in road accidents, hence assessing the risk to fetus fatality. An extensive review of existing models in general and pregnant women models in particular is reported. The time line of successive development of crash test dummies and their positive effect on automotive passive safety design are examined. 'Expecting', the computational pregnant occupant model with a finite element uterus and a multibody fetus, is used in this research to determine the strain levels in the uteroplacental interface. External factors, such as the effect of restraint systems and crash speeds are considered. Internal factors, such as the effect of placental location in the uterus, and the inclusion and exclusion of a fetus are investigated. The head of the multibody fetus is replaced with a deformable head model to investigate the effects of a deformable fetus head on strain levels. The computational pregnant driver model with a fetus offers a more realistic representation of the response to crash impact hence provides a useful tool to investigate fetus safety in motor vehicle accidents. Seat belt, airbag and steering wheel interact directly with the pregnant abdomen and play an important role on fetus safety in motor vehicle accidents. The results prove that the use of a three-point seat belt with the airbag offer the greatest protection to the fetus for frontal crash impacts. The model without a fetus underestimates the strain levels. The outcome of this research should assist automobile manufacturers to address the potential safety issues at the design level

Development of a finite element model for Hybrid III three-year-old dummy-based child restraint system safety simulation.

This research focuses on the injury potential of children seated in forward facing CRS during frontal and side impact crashes. Three testing configurations were considered in this research to quantify the injury potential in standardized testing procedures and to predict observations for validation of a numerical model. These three testing were: (i) Frontal dynamic sled tests were completed in accordance with the FMVSS 213 using a Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy in a five point CRS. (ii) A frontal full vehicle crash test was completed in accordance with the CMVSS 208 with the addition of a Hybrid III 3-year-old child dummy, seated behind the passenger seat, restrained in the identical five-point CRS. (iii) Side dynamic sled tests were conducted by NHTSA using the existing FMVSS 213 seat fixture oriented at both 90° and 45° relative to the motion of the sled buck. A half sine pulse and a scaled FMVSS 213 pulse were used in the tests. All the side impact tests were conducted at a test velocity of 32 km/h (20 mph) and a peak acceleration of 17 G\u27s. A forward-facing Hybrid III 3-year-old child dummy positioned in a CRS with LATCH and the top tether in far side configurations was used in the side impact tests. A finite element model of the child restraint seat was developed using FEMB for simulation in LS-DYNA. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .W368. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0374. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006

REAR SEAT SAFETY IN FRONTAL TO SIDE IMPACTS – FOCUSING ON OCCUPANTS FROM 3YRS TO SMALL ADULTS

ABSTRACT This study presents a broad comprehensive research effort that combines expertise from industry and academia and uses various methodologies with applied research directed towards countermeasures. The project includes real world crash data analysis, real world driving studies and crash testing and simulations, aiming at enhancing the safety of forward facing child occupants (aged 3y to small adults) in the rear seat during frontal to side impacts. The real world crash data analyses of properly restrained children originate from European as well as US data. Frontal and side impact crash tests are analyzed using different sizes of crash test dummies in different sitting postures. Side impact parameter studies using FE-models are run. The sitting posture and behavior of 12 children are monitored while riding in the rear seat. Also, the body kinematics and belt position during actual braking and turning maneuvers are studied for 16 rear seat child occupants and for various child dummies. Real world crash data indicates that several of the injured children in frontal impacts, despite being properly restrained, impacted the vehicle interior structure with their head/face resulting in serious injury. This was attributed to oblique crashes, pre-crash vehicle maneuvers or high crash severity. Crash tests confirm the importance of proper initial belt-fit for best protection. The crash tests also highlight the difficulty in obtaining the real world kinematics and head impact locations using existing crashtest dummies and test procedures. The side impact parameter studies indicate that the vehicle’s occupant protection systems, such as airbags and seat belt pretensioners, play an important role in protecting children as well. The results from the on-road driving studies illustrate the variation of sitting postures during riding in the rear seat giving valuable input to the effects of the restraint systems and to how representative the standardized dummy seating positioning procedures are. The results from the maneuver driving studies illustrate the importance of understanding the kinematics of a child relative to the seat belt in a real world maneuver situation. Real world safety of rear seat occupants, especially children, involves evaluation of protection beyond standard crash testing scenarios in frontal and side impact conditions. This project explores the complete context of rear seat protection in impact situations ranging from front to side and directions in between highlighting the importance of pre-crash posture and behavior. This research project at SAFER (Vehicle and Traffic Safety Centre at Chalmers), where researchers from the industry and universities cooperate with the aim to further improve safety for children (from 3y) to small adults in the rear seat, speeds up the process to safety implementation due to the interaction between academic and industrial researchers

Impact Response Comparison Between Parametric Human Models and Postmortem Human Subjects with a Wide Range of Obesity Levels

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138906/1/oby21947_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138906/2/oby21947.pd

Methods to mitigate injuries to toddlers in a vehicle crash

This research focuses on methods to reduce injuries, specifically in the head and neck region, sustained by children seated in forward facing child restraint system during a vehicle crash. Three standardized experimental tests were considered in this research for the purpose of model validation and to quantify the injury potential sustained by children in a crash: (i) frontal dynamic sled tests were completed in accordance with FMVSS 213 using a Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy in a five point restraint system, (ii) full frontal vehicle crash test was completed in accordance with the CMVSS 208 with a Hybrid III 3-year-old child dummy, seated behind the passenger seat, restrained in five-point restraint system, and (iii) side impact dynamic sled tests in the presence of a rigid wall and absence of a vehicle body (near side configuration) were conducted by NHTSA using a Hybrid III 3-year-old child dummy seated in a convertible forward/rearward child safety seat. A finite element model of the child restraint seat was developed utilizing CAD data provided by Century/Graco Corporation. Material tests were conducted to obtain the nonlinear material properties of the CRS polypropylene, child seatbelt webbing, and polymeric foams. Numerical simulations were conducted using LS-DYNA, and the simulation results of the frontal and side impact tests were observed to be in a good agreement to the experimental findings. An average percentage error of approximately 20 percent was observed between the numerical and experimental data. Different countermeasures were investigated to mitigate the head and neck injury potential in frontal and side impact crashes. These methods involved numerical studies utilizing a Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy, Q3/Q3s dummies and a child FE model. Load limiting behaviour into the upper tether and lower LATCH anchors of the CRS in order to reduce the neck injury criteria by increasing forward head excursion in a frontal crash was first examined. It was observed that the implementation of load limiting behaviour in the CRS tethers was effective in reducing the head and neck injury criteria by approximately 60 percent and 35 percent respectively. Secondly, a head and neck restraining device was developed to limit the amount of neck rotation in the dummy\u27s head. A reduction of approximately 50 to 60 percent was observed in the head and neck injury potential in the presence of the head and neck restraining device. Finally, numerical simulations were completed with rectangular and cross-shaped sections of rigid ISOFIX systems for better side impact protection. In addition, studies were conducted to confine lateral movement of the dummy\u27s head by incorporating energy absorbing foam on the side wings in the vicinity of the contact region of the CRS. It was observed that the use of the rigid ISOFIX system reduced the lateral displacement of the CRS and different injury parameters. Addition of energy absorbing foam blocks was effective in further reducing the lateral displacement of the dummy\u27s head by approximately 50 to 60 mm

Female kinematics and muscle responses in lane change and lane change with braking maneuvers

Objective: The primary aim of this article is to extensively study female occupant kinematics and muscle activations in vehicle maneuvers potentially occurring in precrash situations and with different seat belt configurations. The secondary aim is to provide validation data for active human body models (AHBMs) of female occupants in representative precrash loading situations. Methods: Front seat female passengers wearing a 3-point seat belt, with either standard or pre-pretensioning functionality, were subjected to multiple autonomously carried-out lane change and lane change with braking maneuvers while traveling at 73 km/h. This article quantifies the head center of gravity and T1 vertebra body (T1) linear and rotational displacements. This article also includes surface electromyography (EMG) data collected from 38 muscles in the neck, torso, and upper and lower extremities, all normalized by maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). The raw EMG data were filtered, rectified, and smoothed. Separate Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were performed on EMG onset and amplitude as well as peak displacements of head and T1 considering 2 paired samples with the belt configuration as an independent variable. Results: Significantly smaller lateral and forward displacements for head and T1 were found with the pre-pretensioner belt versus the standard belt (P <.05). Averaged muscle activity, mainly in the neck, lumbar extensor, and abdominal muscles, increased up to 16% MVC immediately after the vehicle accelerated in the lateral direction. Muscles in the right and left sides of the body displayed differences in activation time and amplitude relative to the vehicle’s lateral motion. For specific muscles, lane changes with the pre-pretensioner belt resulted in earlier muscle activation onsets and significantly smaller activation amplitudes compared to the standard belt (P <.05). Conclusions: The presented results from female passengers complement the previously published results from male passengers subjected to the same loading scenarios. The data provided in this article can be used for validation of AHBMs of female occupants in both sagittal and lateral loading scenarios potentially occurring prior to a crash. Additionally, our results show that a pre-pretensioner belt decreases muscle activation onset and amplitude as well as forward and lateral displacements of head and T1 compared to a standard belt, confirming previously published results