Approach

Given the vast difference in injury risk between males and females, the availability of an average male dummy alone may limit the assessment and development of whiplash prevention systems, which adequately protect both male and female vehicle occupants. The focus in ADSEAT is to identify and collect the information needed to describe the female characteristics that should be incorporated in a female whiplash dummy.

Work packages

The ADSEAT project is divided into seven work packages (WP), including management (WP 6) and dissemination (WP 7), as shown in the figure below.

 
 


Schematic description of the various work packages (WP) in the ADSEAT project and how they relate to each other.

 The aims of the five technical work packages are:
  • To analyse real world data and perform literature review (WP 1)
  • To establish biological data of females (WP 2)
  • To develop a finite element dummy model of an average female (WP 3)
  • To establish injury criteria and thresholds for females (WP 4)
  • To develop a seat demonstrator illustrating how whiplash protection can be achieved for a wider population, using adaptive seat design. In addition, seat evaluation guidelines will be specified (WP 5).

A finite element model representing the female part of the population will be developed in the ADSEAT project as the BIORID model represents the male part of the population.

The figure above shows the stature distribution of British males (shaded dark grey) and females (shaded light grey) car drivers in comparison to the BioRID 50th percentile male dummy used for rear impact testing and the future results of the ADSEAT project.

Read more under "Work Packages"