Biomechanical Responses of the THOR-AV ATD in Rear Facing Test Conditions 2022-01-0836

The THOR-AV dummy is a modified THOR dummy being developed for occupant safety testing in upright and reclined seating postures. The dummy has a new neck with improved biofidelity in rear impact, a pelvis/abdomen/lumbar design to improve seating posture, and a pelvis anthropometry that mimics human submarining responses for reclined seat testing. The dummy was evaluated against postmortem human subject (PMHS) corridors in rearward facing impact conditions (56 km/h impact speed, 38g acceleration) in both 25° and 45° seatback configurations. Biofidelity Ranking System (BRS) scores were calculated in accordance with NHTSA’s latest calculation algorithm. The BRS scores for THOR-AV seat loading are 1.58 (“good” biofidelity) and 2.94 (“marginal” biofidelity) for the 25° and 45° configurations respectively. The BRS scores for THOR-AV occupant responses are 1.95 and 1.38 for the 25° and 45° configurations respectively, both corresponding to “good” biofidelity. From the evaluation, the dummy motion in the vertical direction is lacking compared to PMHS responses. The dummy durability is promising, with no damage observed in the test series.