Design, fabrication and testing of a component HIC tester for aircraft applications

Abstract The compliance with HIC specified in 14 CFR 23.562 and CFR 25.562 poses a significant problem for many segments of the aerospace industry. The airlines and the manufacturers of jet transports have made claims of high costs and significant schedule overruns during the development and certification of 16G seats because of the difficulties encountered in meeting this requirement. The current practice for certification is to conduct ȁfull-scaleȁ seat tests on impact sleds. This approach can be expensive, since a new seat may be needed for each test. This paper deals with the development and calibration of a Head Injury Criteria component tester (HCT) by the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR). The HCT device will be capable of evaluating the potential for head injury over a wide range of aircraft cabin configurations at relatively lower cost and in a shorter time period compared to full-scale sled tests. The existing full-scale sled test data was reviewed to acquire the necessary informat...