Instinctual Physiological Reaction of Driver’s Cervical Muscle to a Collision

Abstract

The influence of cervical muscles on the head/neck responses to frontal collisions is an important issue in the design of vehicle safety systems. In this study, spring-type muscles based on a Hybrid III 50th percentile dummy were used. A spring was used to simulate the cervical muscle with the instinctual physiological reaction of a driver. A total of 10 volunteers were recruited for the simulated collision tests and the maximum voluntary contraction tests, and test data were used to establish and design the spring-type muscles. Sled tests were performed using a modified dummy with spring-type muscles, which had similar mechanical characteristics to a human body. The results showed that Ax increased 3.58%, Ay decreased [Formula: see text]10.32%, Az increased 3.21%, Fx increased 12.22%, Fz increased 3.80%, and My decreased significantly ([Formula: see text]16.70% in average) at first but then increased 5.57%, in average. Cervical muscles with the instinctual physiological reaction may increase the potential head injury and potential cervical longitudinal shear injury while decreasing the potential cervical extension injury. The study provides reference for designing dummies by taking into consideration the instinctual physiological reaction of the driver to a collision.