Optimization of the driver's seat belt and injury biomechanical analysis in real-world minivan small offset impact accident scenarios

Xiuju Yang; Jingjing Shi; Qianying Fu; Shanshan Pu; Chunxiao Lian; Kui Li; Zhiyong Yin; Shengxiong Liu; Guixue Wang

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.965206

Optimization of the driver's seat belt and injury biomechanical analysis in real-world minivan small offset impact accident scenarios

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Oct 20:10:965206. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.965206. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiuju Yang¹, Jingjing Shi², Qianying Fu², Shanshan Pu², Chunxiao Lian², Kui Li³, Zhiyong Yin^{1

4}, Shengxiong Liu², Guixue Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Biorheological Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Vascular Implants, College of Bioengineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Pharmacy and Bioengineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing, China.
³ Chongqing Key Laboratory of Vehicle Crash/Bio-Impact and Traffic Safety, Department 4, Institute of Surgery Research, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁴ China Automotive Engineering Research Institute Co., Ltd., Chongqing, China.

Abstract

To minimize injuries and protect the safety of the driver in minivan small offset collisions, an optimized pre-tensioned force-limiting seat belt was proposed herein. An accident with detailed information, such as medical reports, vehicle inspection reports, and accident scene photographs, was reconstructed using HyperMesh software. The effectiveness of both the accident model and the pre-tensioned force-limiting seat belt was evaluated. To obtain the optimal seat belt parameters for driver protection, first, force-limiting A, pre-tensioned force B, and pre-tensioned time C factors were selected in designing an orthogonal test with different factor levels. The influence laws of each factor on the injury biomechanical characteristics of the driver were analyzed via the direct analysis method. Moreover, each kind of critical injury value of the human body was synthesized, and the radial basis function surrogate model was constructed. The three seat belt parameters were optimized using the NSGA-II multi-objective genetic algorithm. The results showed that the optimal balance variable parameter of the seat belt was 4751.618 N-2451.839 N-17.554 ms (A-B-C). Finally, the optimal scheme was verified in a system simulating a minivan small offset collision. The results showed that after optimization, the skull von Mises stress was reduced by 36.9%, and the stress of the cervical vertebra cortical bone and cancellous bone decreased by 29.1% and 30.8%, respectively. In addition, the strains of the ribs and lungs decreased by 31.2% and 30.7%, respectively.

Keywords: accident reconstruction; biomechanics analysis; driver injury; genetic algorithm; multi-objective genetic algorithm; pre-tensioned force-limiting seat belt; small offset collision.