Multibody Investigation on the Passive Safety Performances of Seats in Railway Vehicles

The research activities described in this paper aim to identify the causes and the typologies of secondary impact injuries to passengers of a railway vehicle during a specific crash event, to understand the measure in which these injuries can be absorbed and to identify possible ways of reducing or eliminating them. The main investigated solution was to restrain passengers to their seats by considering the presence of seat belts. Biomechanical performances of passenger configurations with two-point and three-point seat belts were investigated and compared with those of unrestrained passengers. An anthropomorphic test device representative of medium size people was furnished and experimental tests were worked out in order to obtain effective data regarding the interaction of passengers with seats and seatbelts. By using these experimental data a multi-body numerical model of the sled test was calibrated and validated and restraining configuration performances, which could not be physically tested, were simulated.