Matched Pair Testing of Injury Potential in Repeatable Rollover Tests With the CRIS and JRS

The availability of repeatable dynamic rollover fixtures, like the Controlled Rollover Impact System (CRIS) and Jordan Rollover System (JRS), has changed the face of rollover structural and occupant protection development and evaluation. Tests performed with these devices have demonstrated scientific principles of occupant protection and injury potential which were previously resolvable only by expert rhetoric. Matched-pair experiments with instrumentation measuring dynamic roof crush and dummy injury metrics are now possible. The effectiveness of occupant protection features such as padding, window curtain airbags, belt pretensioners and headrests are qualitatively and quantitatively measureable. The sensitivity of rollover parameters themselves and their effect on injury potential can be determined by tests with different roll rates, pitch angles, impact angles and drop heights. Simulating injury potential to humans with ultimately biofidelic dummy musculature can also be demonstrated. This paper presents two matched pair test sets performed on the CRIS and two matched pair test sets performed on the JRS. The matched pair test sets performed on the CRIS compare the dummy injury measures in reinforced and production versions of the 1998 Ford Crown Victoria and the 1996 Chevrolet Blazer. The CRIS test of the matched pair Crown Victoria vehicles has been presented previously in a paper by Moffatt et al [1]. The matched pair tests that were performed on the JRS were conducted to study the effect of a reinforced roof on dummy injury measures. These tests, performed on production and reinforced versions of the 1998 Ford Explorer and the 1999 Hyundai Sonata, included the measurements of road loads, roof crush and crush speed, dummy upper and lower neck loads, belt loads, as well as the movement of the vehicle during the test.