A Study On Optimization Of Anti-Whiplash Seat

According to the road traffic accident statistics of China, rear accident is themajor categories of the road traffic, the incidence of that is less than the front and sideimpacts. About90%of passengers’ injury is neck injury usually called whiplashinjury in rear accidents. Though whiplash injury is belong to slight injury(AIS1), theresulted headache, neck pain, neuralgia and other symptoms, not only make patientssuffer great pain, and the treatment of these symptoms also costs a huge socialspending. So how to improve the anti-whiplash performance of the seat and reduceneck injuries from rear impacts has become an increasing problem in the filed ofvehicle occupant protectionIn order to analyze the factors that affect occupant whiplash injury and make theoptimization of the anti-whiplash seat, firstly, a rear-end impact model for occupantwhiplash injury analysis was built using MADYMO code and the model was validatedwith available experimental data. Then, using the model and nine objective, whichused in the evaluation procedure for whiplash injury, the influence of accerlerationcurves and the five design parameters of seat (such as the distance between head andheadrest, the stiffness of headrest, etc.) on the occupant whiplash injury was analyzed.Finally, according to the EURO NCAP evaluation procedure for whiplash injury,using five objectives like Neck Injury Criterion NIC etc, the anti-whiplashperformance of the seat in initial condition was evaluated. Next, selecting sevenparameters of the seat parameters and using orthogonal experimental design (OED)and comprehensive equilibrium methods, the influence of the seven parameters on thefive objectives was analyzed and the best configuration of the seven parameters wasfound.According to simulation results, the following conclusions were made.NIC is reduced by36.8%, and other four objectives are reduced by varyingdegrees in the best selected programm, so the anti-whiplash performance of the seat issignificantly improved.In rear-end impact, the backset is a vital factor to the passengers’ whiplashinjuries. Minimizing this distance and using the suitable height of the headrest, thewhiplash injuries will be effectively prevented and the passengers’ neck injury willalso be reduced. In addition, using the suitable stiffness of RECLINER and headrest and selecting the appropriate distribution of the seatback, will help to reduce theevaluation value and improve the anti-whiplash performance of the seat.