A device includes an airbag and an outer cover. The airbag is accommodated between a body and a rear seat of a vehicle. The outer cover covers a space defined between the body and the rear seat from the passenger compartment and is exposed to the passenger compartment. When an impact greater than a predetermined level is applied to the vehicle body, a thin portion of the outer cover is ruptured by the pressure from inflation of the airbag. This forms an opening in the outer cover. The airbag is then inflated into the passenger compartment from the opening of the outer cover. The end at the part of the outer cover corresponding to the opening and facing toward the rear seat is entirely formed by the end of the outer cover.

Side airbag device

System and method for maintaining functionality of software includes initially providing the vehicle with software resident on computer-readable medium to enable it to operate and interact with components thereof and updating the vehicle software by receiving a wireless transmission from one or more remote locations, e.g., a location maintained by a dealer or manufacturer of the vehicle. The software may be diagnostic software for a diagnostic module which diagnoses operability of components of the vehicle. Different remote locations may be responsible for different portions of the vehicle-resident software and may therefore provide different software upgrades, based on need.

Vehicle Software Upgrade Techniques

In a head protecting airbag device, an airbag includes an inflation portion and a connection port portion. The connection port portion includes: an outlet side portion having a communication port to the inflation portion at its lower end; and an inlet side portion for inserting an inflator therein. The inflator includes a body portion having a gas discharge port, and a diffuser having a gas outlet port. The diffuser is connected with the body portion so as to cover the gas discharge port, having its two ends forced into contact with the outer circumference of the body portion. The inflator is connected to a connection port portion with good sealing properties and the gas outlet port faces toward the communication port of the connection port portion and thus toward the inflation portion. This head protecting airbag device simplifies the connection structure between the inflator and the airbag while retaining the quick expansion and inflation of the airbag.

Head protecting airbag device

Twelve male volunteers participated in this study. They sat on a seat mounted on a newly developed sled that simulated actual car impact acceleration. Impact speeds (4, 6 and 8 km/h), seat stiffness, neck muscle tension, and cervical spine alignment were selected for the parameter study of the head-neck-torso kinematics and cervical spine responses. The motion patterns of cervical vertebrae in the crash motion and in the normal motion were compared. Subject's muscles in the relaxed state did not affect the head-neck-torso kinematics upon rear-end impact. The ramping-up motion of the subject's torso was observed due to the seatback inclination. An axial compression force occurred when this motion was applied to the cervical spine, which in turn developed the initial flexion, with the lower cervical vertebral segments extended and rotated prior to the motions of the upper segments. Those motions were beyond the normal physiological cervical motion, which should be attributed to the facet joint injury mechanism. The difference in alignment of the cervical spine affected the impact responses of head and neck markedly. Based on the differences in the alignment of the cervical spine between male and female occupants, it is pointed out that the neck injury incidence tends to become higher for women than for men.(A) For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD E201172.

Cervical injury mechanism based on the analysis of human cervical vertebral motion and head-neck-torso kinematics during low speed rear impacts

A study on biodynamic models of seated human subjects exposed to vertical vibration

A safety device for a motor vehicle which has a door frame and a door contained within the door frame. The safety device includes: a gas generator; a sensor for sensing at least one of a side impact and a roll-over for activating the gas generator; and an inflatable element connected to the gas generator for being inflated with gas from the gas generator upon activation of the gas generator. The inflatable element can thus assume a non-inflated mode and an inflated mode and can further be positioned adjacent the door in an inflated-mode thereof. The inflatable element is further made of fabric and includes: a first fabric layer defining a front part thereof; a second fabric layer defining a back part thereof, selected parts of the first fabric layer and second fabric layer being interconnected for defining one of linear and point shaped links where the first fabric layer and the second fabric layer are directly secured together. The inflatable element thus incorporates a plurality of substantially parallel elongated cells defined between the links, the cells being configured such that, upon inflation of the inflatable element with the gas from the gas generator, a lower edge portion of the inflatable element is tensioned. The inflatable element further includes an upper edge portion which is configured to be secured to the door frame all along a non-linear part of the door frame.

Side impact and roll over inflatable head protector

In this study a mathematical model, based on Navier Stokes equations, was developed and validated against experimental data. This model predicts the pressure changes in the spinal canal as a function of the volume change inside the canal during neck bending in the x-z (sagittal) plane. Another aim of the study was to investigate pressure phenomena and ganglion injuries at static neck extension loading and dynamic neck extension trauma with a head-restraint present. Experiments on pigs were conducted. Preliminary results indicate that ganglion injuries, as well as pressure transients inside the spinal canal, seem to correlate to the phase shift when the neck passes an s-shape (or maximal retraction) during the rearward motion of the head. That is, when the upper neck quickly changes from a flexion to an extension shape. Static loading of the neck resulted in no signs of injuries to the ganglia. A possible candidate for a neck injury criterion is presented, based on the relative acceleration between the top and the bottom of the cervical spine. A tolerance level based on the pig tests is also discussed.

https://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/181305/local_181305.pdf

A new neck injury criterion candidate-based on injury findings in the cervical spinal ganglia after experimental neck extension trauma

Neck injuries in car collisions. a review covering a possible injury mechanism and the development of a new rear-impact dummy

Pedestrians are a high-risk group in vehicle impacts, especially in urban areas. In Europe pedestrians account for around 20% of all traffic fatalities. In the rest of the world this frequency varies from 14% in the USA up to 47% in Thailand. The majority of pedestrian fatalities are due to head impacts. Today's cars are very densely packed under the bonnet. Certain stiff parts, such as the spring tower and the top of the engine, are very close to the bonnet. There is often not enough space for bonnet deformation by an impacting head. The consequence is often a severe or fatal head injury. Therefore, a protection system has been developed to decrease the severity of head-to-bonnet impacts. The system is activated at the impact by a sensor located in the bumper, at speeds above 20 km/h. The sensor is able to discriminate objects with a different geometry (another car versus a leg), as well as with a different stiffness (a pole versus a leg). Two actuators lift the rear part of the bonnet approximately 100 mm. The actuators were tuned to have lifted the bonnet at 60-70 milliseconds after the leg-to-bumper impact, but before the head impact. The actuators/lifting elements were also tuned to stay up during the upper torso impact, but still be energy-absorbing to keep the head loading down if the head impact is on top of the lifting elements. The system has been tested by a headform impacting the bonnet at various locations and speeds up to 50 km/h, as well as with a complete car front on a sled impacting a pedestrian dummy. The dummy tests were performed to check the timing of the system, but also to check that the lifting elements were strong enough to keep the bonnet in a lifted position during the upper torso impact until the head impacted the bonnet. The kinematics of the pedestrian dummy was compared to that of a validated pedestrian mathematical model. In headform tests in 40 km/h the system decreased the HIC values to acceptable levels (<1000) in all test points for the lifting bonnet, including the headform contact locations above where the bonnet was lifted. In the 50 km/h headform test above the bonnet's stiffest point, a large reduction of the HIC value was achieved. It was reduced over 90% to a value of 1213, with the active bonnet system compared to the standard bonnet. For the covering abstract see ITRD E111577.

/pdf/evaluation-of-a-new-pedestrian-head-injury-protection-system-n6ea5gw4if.pdf

Yngve Haland

Papers

Side impact and roll over inflatable head protector

A new neck injury criterion candidate-based on injury findings in the cervical spinal ganglia after experimental neck extension trauma

Neck injuries in car collisions. a review covering a possible injury mechanism and the development of a new rear-impact dummy

Evaluation of a new pedestrian head injury protection system with a sensor in the bumper and lifting of the bonnet’s rear part

Comparison of car seats in low speed rear-end impacts using the BioRID dummy and the new neck injury criterion (NIC).