Research

In traffic accidents or during sports, the human body can be injured by impacts. To reduce the number of victims is an important goal for a safe society. In our laboratory, we conduct research on the human responses and injuries due to impacts and develop protection systems, particularly for vehicle collisions.

Projects

Child occupant protection

Child occupant protection in traffic accidents is an international issue. In traffic accidents, children sustain head injuries frequently. We examined how the child’s head moves out of the child restraint system and can contact with vehicle interior in vehicle side impacts. Based on simulation, we conducted side impact crash tests. The kinematic behavior of child occupant was comparable with that of computer simulation. It was demonstrated that the child can be injured seriously when his/her head makes contact with the door of the vehicle.



Pedestrian protection

Because of the increasing number of elderly people, pedestrian safety is a significant issue in Japan. The pedestrian can be seriously injured from a direct impact by the vehicle body in vehicle-pedestrian collisions. Using finite element and multibody models, we investigate the mechanism that causes injuries to the human body and damaged to the vehicle structure.

Occupant protection in frontal crash

Occupant protection is a main target for crash safety. We investigate the occupant kinematic behavior in frontal impacts, the effects of the acceleration field, the restraint system, and the human body size on the occupant’s injury risk. From the comparison between the crash dummy and human finite element models, the human finite element model shows more flexible behavior. Sled tests are also carried out to validate the models.