Comparison of the Q3 and Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy head and neck response during side air bag loading

Abstract

This paper presents the results of 20 tests designed to compare the head and neck response of the Q3 dummy and the Hybrid III 3-year-old dummy subject to loading by a deploying side air bag. In a static test environment, experiments were conducted in two positions using three seat-mounted thoracic side air bags that varied only in the level of inflator output. Substantial kinematic and kinetic differences were observed owing to differences in head geometry and mass, and neck stiffness between the two dummies. The Hybrid III head is 18 per cent heavier than the Q3 and resulted in peak head centre of gravity accelerations significantly lower ( p = 0.01) than those observed in the Q3. The stiffer Hybrid III neck resulted in 41 ± 29 per cent higher neck flexion moment compared with the Q3. While the stiffness properties for the Q3 neck are similar in all directions, the Hybrid III neck has preferred anterior-posterior stiffness properties. This difference was observed in tests where lateral loading of the head forced lateral bending in which the Hybrid III recorded a 101 ± 80 per cent higher lateral bending moment compared with the Q3. Although there is considerable uncertainty as to the validity of published injury criteria owing to the lack of child biomechanical data, these tests suggest that separate injury criteria are needed for each dummy.