Development of Computer Simulation Method for Seat Optimization to Reduce Neck Injury ina Low Speed Rear Impact

Whiplash injuries caused by rear-end collisions have been issued by many researches or reports and car manufacturers has been trying to develop a seat to protect passengers from whiplash injuries. The main objective of this study is to present the computer simulation method for car seat optimization against whiplash injury. The study result assists designers to understand design parameters of a seat and active headrest(AHR) performance in relation to the rear-end collisions. Also, the authors examine how the dummy position (including the height) affects the injury indexes. The structural optimization is performed to obtain the optimal seat with AHR (Active Head Rest)by using the TNO BioRID-II dummy and MADYMO software.