Driver head kinematic analysis under frontal offset collision during the rebound phase

Abstract

Frontal offset crash test, either regulator or NCAP, only focus on evaluating the primary impact during the collision phase. The rebound phase is not counted in the assessment. This study focused on the rebound phase. In this phase, vehicle will rotate to the side, causing occupant's head move toward the window door glass. At an impact velocity from 6 m/s to 9 m/s against tempered glass windows, HIC values can stand over a limit of 1000. However, the severity of the head injury cannot be evaluated in the offset collision test because the window glass winded down for the high speed camera recording purpose. The analysis from the video shows head are moving towards the b pillar and side windows glass during frontal offset crash test. The resultant head rebound velocities varies in the range of 4.63 to 10.18 metre per second.