SIAR Congress, CAR 2026

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Relationship between crash pulse characteristics and whiplash risk in an advanced anti-whiplash front seat
Selcuk Himmetoglu, Zeynepnur Cengiz

Last modified: 2026-08-02

Abstract


Occupants can be subjected to diverse crash pulses in rear impacts. Both crash pulse characteristics and seat type are the causative factors for the whiplash risk of an occupant. In this study, a 50th percentile male human-body model sitting in an advanced anti-whiplash front seat is subjected to 27 crash pulses with varying severities and pulse shapes. The delta-Vs of the crash pulses range from 9 km/h to 24 km/h. Apart from delta-V, the other crash pulse characteristics include the peak acceleration and the peak moving average acceleration with a time window of 50 ms. For each crash pulse, the values of the EuroNCAP whiplash assessment criteria are recorded at the end of the simulations. The EuroNCAP criteria are an indication of whiplash risk. Both linear and bilinear regression analyses have been performed to find correlations between crash pulse characteristics and the EuroNCAP criteria. The peak acceleration of the crash pulse is not found influential. The peak moving average acceleration and delta-V correlate with whiplash risk. It is found that peak moving average acceleration has a higher share of influence on whiplash risk compared to delta-V. In bilinear regression models involving both delta-V and peak moving average acceleration as input variables, coefficient of determination values reach as high as 0.89. In the bilinear regression analyses, the input variables (crash pulse characteristics) and neck response (output variables) are normalised with respect to their largest values. It is observed that the shape of the crash pulse is also an influential factor determining whiplash risk.