The optimized crash pulse has a concave shape and is dependent on the occupant restraint stiffness and maximum vehicle deformation. The shapes of the optimized crash pulse in the final phase were different for the objective functions of chest acceleration and chest deflection due to the inertial forces of the head and upper extremities. From the human FE model analysis it was found that the optimized crash pulse for the Hybrid III chest deflection can substantially reduce the risk of rib cage fractures. Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.

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