Grant: Alliance Grants

Accidental injury is a leading cause of hospitalization and fatality throughout the world, but has been recognized as preventable. Achieving the Transport Canada goal to reduce the number of road traffic fatalities requires improved protection for at-risk populations including aged females, not adequately addressed in current safety approaches. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (US) has identified the importance of computer models to predict injury as a vital biomechanics priority to improve human safety. Rapid developments in autonomous and electric vehicles with alternate seating positions can only be addressed using computational Human Body Models (HBMs), since physical crash dummies are limited in assessing non-traditional seating positions and at-risk populations. The long-term goal of the Trauma Biomechanics and Injury Prevention program led by the applicant is to develop biofidelic (human-like response) and frangible (damage simulating) HBMs to improve safety for humans, with a focus on at-risk populations, and to generate new approaches to mitigate injury. The objectives of this research project are: Objective 1: Enhancement of aged, small female HBM and parametric study Objective 2: Evaluation of restraint systems in Advanced Side Impact Sled system computational model Objective 3: Safety system performance quantification in full vehicle production model The proposed research will address limitations in current approaches for at-risk population safety through integration of the most advanced aged HBMs available with a side impact environment to understand injury pathways, and integration in a full vehicle environment to improve safety systems for diverse populations.