Research: SIBER

Side impact dummy biomechanics and experimental research

Overview

This is a 2.5 year project funded under the EU FP5 Program consisting of 9 partners from the EU.

Start date: February 2001
End Date: April 2004.

Objectives

The side impact crash is now the key contributor to fatal and serious injuries in road accidents in Europe. The recent issue of a side impact directive marks an important step in improving car safety, but some areas of concern exist. One is the specification of the dummy used in the test procedure, which is not sufficiently able to address the risk at injury in complex side impact loading conditions, e.g involving active protection systems. This problem has become more clear as car and restraint producers world-wide are forced to test with different side impact dummies to comply with different standards in different areas of the world. Therefore, the main objective is to provide a scientific basis and tools for enhancing and harmonising the side impact dummy, allowing automobile and restraint manufacturers to make safer cars against lower costs. The dummy developed will have more humanlike behaviour more appropriate instrumentation and guidelines for future regulatory testing.

Our role

MIRA’s role was the evaluation of the proposed test procedures and biomechanical research.

Contact:

Gabrielle Cross

Email: gabrielle.cross@mira.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)24 7635 5127
Fax: +44 (0)24 7635 8127