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Why do researchers use crash test dummies in simulated motor vehicle accidents?

“So roughly 90 people die every day from the car crash in US. These car crash seriously
injured almost 4.4 million people.” It has become a serious issue, and engineers are doing
more research to improve cars safety to minimize injuries during the car crash. The car
comes to a complete stop in a short amount of time during the crash. However, the
passengers inside do not stop in the short amount of time. So, the Momentum continues to
act on them, causing them to keep moving forward and most likely they end up hitting the
windshield. Which causes severe injuries on the passengers. Therefore, multiple safety
equipment has been installed into the cars, such as airbags or seat belts to prevent the
injuries from occurring and slow down the force acting on the passengers.
Before the newly developed equipment’s were established and used in real-life situations,
they got tested. That was where researchers in automotive companies used these crash test
dummies to test safety measurements in a car to see if they are efficient.
The crash test dummies are an anthropomorphic test device (ATD) used to imitate the size,
mass and articulation of a human being to predict injuries that may occur on the human
body by a car crash. These dummies' bodies are created of steel and aluminum bones
covered by a vinyl covering and full of multiple purposes sensors (acceleration, force,
torque, displacement to record sensors).
They were first made in 1949 to test aircraft seats for the US air force, then later they were
used in the automotive industry in 1968 by Samuel Alderson. As more technology were
developed, better dummies with better imitation of a human were created to improve car
safety. They made different dummies for various situations in a car crash; woman, child,
elder or male dummies were created because different bodies have different impacts in a
crash. Modern crash test dummies are built to handle specific situations, front, side and
rear collision. They do all sorts of simulation on motor vehicle accidents from all directions
and angles of a car. So they made dummies to go through different injuries and movements.
Crash test dummies are tools that are used to predict injuries that may be caused by a crash
and how car safety equipment can prevent those injuries to protect the passengers. Like as
I mentioned earlier, a product need to be tested before it is launched in public. Therefore, if
there is a fault in the equipment, it can be changed or upgraded. The dummies tell how fast
the head and body hit the steering; the extent to which airbags cushioned the blow; how
well the seatbelt worked; and whether any other body parts suffered injuries.
These dummies have several sensors to collect responses and data during a high-speed
crash.
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These types of sensor are used while testing
1. Acceleration sensors: These devices measure the acceleration in a different
direction. This data can be used to determine the chances of injuries. So,
acceleration is the rate at which speed changes. For example, if you hit your head
into the wall, your head speed changes very quickly which can hurts you. But, if you
hit your head into something soft, the speed of your head changes slowly as the
pillow crushes and it does not hurt as much as the wall. Which also connect to the
impulse. Impulse is the change of momentum (I = ∆ p) during a collision and the
force applied on an object in a certain amount of time. If we connect this to a car
crash, a car is going at a high velocity, and when it crashes, the speed changes very
quickly it become equal to 0. Therefore, there is an infinite change in momentum.
The formula of momentum is p = mv. So, if the velocity is a bigger than the mass the
momentum is already very high. Well, the formula of Impulse is Force x Time (FxT).
If Force is greater than the Time or Time is greater than the Force, the change in
momentum is same but a higher force applied in a small amount of time hurts more
than a small force applied in a longer time.

2. Load Sensors: are the sensor inside the dummies that measures the amount of force
on different parts of body during a crash.

3. Movement Sensors: movement sensor is a sensor that used in the dummy’s chest. They
measure how much the chest deflects during a crash.
In-car crash , there are two types of collisions. Partially inelastic – crush and still apart -
and completely inelastic collisions, crush and stick together. In the collision, the total
momentum is conserved because the conservation of momentum law states that when two
objects collide, the collision does not change the object's total momentum. The momentum
is lost by one object and it is gained by the other. But the kinetic energy is not. The kinetic
energy lost in the collision; some is converted into sound means thermal energy. While
some kinetic energy is still conserved in the passengers. During the crash, the velocity of
the car changes to 0, but the passengers velocity do not change due to high momentum. So
it requires more time to remove the change in momentum. The person keeps going at a
constant velocity and they are unable to stop with the car.
To prevent these risks what we can do is when the passengers are about to collide with the
windshield, you would like to remove the kinetic energy as slowly and evenly as possible.
Some of the safety devices in your car helps to do that. The seatbelt can absorb some of
your energy as you move forward towards the airbag. Next, the airbag deploys and absorbs
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some more of your forward motion while protecting you from hitting anything hard or
sharp.
When you get into a car crash, the airbags opens, which prevents you from hitting into the
windshield and it slows you down over a longer period of time rather all at once, it takes in
some of the kinetic energy and changing the impulse from Force > Time to Time > Force.
Crash test dummies also proved that safety measures such as seat belts and airbags
improve the safety of the car and the passengers. Many do not wear seat belts in cars, but
they do not realize the risk if a car accident occurs. Safety belts cut driver crash deaths by 42
percent. Adding airbags raises the protection to approximately 47 percent. But the people
with breathing problem are likely to die because you can’t breathe properly while the air bag
is open and we don’t know how long will it take the emergency vehicle to arrive and take
them out.

Many improvements for car safety has been made from the help of crash test dummies
throughout the years. Initially, airbags were only situated in front of the car and mainly
designed to provide for only adult-sized front seated passengers in a crash. Now, smart
airbags have been developed that would sense the size and position of the front car
occupants and open accordingly.
The main difference between a smart airbag and a regular airbag is the sensor system. This
system measures the seating position and weight of every passenger in the car. During an
accident, the sensor system decides how hard and how much to inflate the bag based on
your weight and seating position. The bigger the person, the harder it will shoot out. This
way, it allows the airbags to work properly for multiple kinds of bodies and situations
rather than be unisize - one for all. Therefore, if a child is involved in an accident, less force
would be applied to slow down the child or a person with a smaller mass reducing the
number of injuries.
Other safety equipment that have been introduced are side airbags. Side airbags are still
optional, but it is estimated after 2020, all cars will be manufactured with side airbags.
They are effective during a side collision and reduce passenger-to-passenger collision.
Furthermore, it prevents people head and chest from hitting hard parts of vehicle’s side
structure. Side airbags reduce a car driver's risk of death in driver-side crashes by 37 percent
and an SUV driver's risk by 52 percent. As well as back seat passengers do not have as much
protection and airbags as the front seats, so installing side airbags even in the back would
secure the passengers.
Not only were safety measurements were improved with the help of crash test dummies,
but the dummies got upgraded. So the researchers apply paint to them now to get better
results during a simulated vehicle accident. Different paint colours are applied to the parts
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of the dummies' bodies most likely to hit during a crash. The dummies knees, face and
areas near the skull are each painted with a different colour. If researchers note a huge
acceleration or injury in the data, the car's paint marks will indicate what part of the body
hit what part of the vehicle. This information helps researchers develop improvements to
prevent that type of injury from occurring in future crashes.
The safety measurements ensure the change in momentum in the passengers is reduced as
slowly as possible. Therefore, they are built so that the collision time is higher and the force
acting on the person is lower. Allowing the person to have less injuries while coming to a
complete stop.
Although with the help of crash test dummies we have less injuries and deaths because it
help us identify were should we be protecting the most.
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Citation
Palm Beach Garage. 5 Facts about Side Airbags and Why You Want Them. 4 Feb. 2017,
palmbeachgarage.com/side-airbags/.

"Crash test dummy." World of Invention, Gale, 2006. Gale In Context: Science,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV1647500225/SCIC?u=ko_k12pr_d27&sid=SCIC&xid=7d5811b4.
Accessed 1st June. 2021.
"Airbag, automobile." World of Invention, Gale, 2006. Gale In Context: Science,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/CV1647500014/SCIC?u=ko_k12pr_d27&sid=SCIC&xid=f87b607d.
Accessed 5th June 2021.

“Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD).” Humanetics,

humanetics.humaneticsgroup.com/products/anthropomorphic-test-devices.

Hanley, Ryan. “Are Crash Test Dummies Really Like People?” TrustedChoice.com, 27 Apr.
2020, www.trustedchoice.com/insurance-articles/wheels-wings-motors/crash-test-
dummies/.