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Abstract
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27th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV): Enhanced and Equitable Vehicle Safety for All: Toward the Next 50 Years
https://www-esv.nhtsa.dot.gov/Proceedings/27/27ESV-000327.pdf
Occupant safety in rear impact automotive collisions relies heavily on freestanding seats to restrain front seated occupants without intruding into the survival space of occupants in the rear seat [1] [2]. The seatback must absorb crash energy while remaining sufficiently upright to prevent occupant ramping and injurious contact with rear seated occupants and / or rear vehicle structures. Additionally, the front seats must be designed to accommodate all different occupant statures comfortably [3]. Adjustability is typically achieved by equipping the seats with a number of features including fore / aft adjustment, recline adjustment, and often seat height adjustments. These adjustment features are either manually, or electrically adjustable. A failure mode in manually adjustable dual recliner seats has been identified wherein the recliner connecting rod can disengage one, or both, recliners during a rear impact event, undermining the seat back's ability to restrain the relative rearward movement of the front occupant. This catastrophic failure mode presents both front and rear seated occupants with higher risks of severe injury. Three real world cases are presented wherein manually adjustable recliners were found to release in a rear impact due to the recliner connecting rod. Testing and / or demonstration of the failure mode is shown in each case which shows matching evidence between the accident and test seats. |