Injury evaluation for passenger seated in the rotating and reclining seat in the event of a train collision

• Published in: Kikai Gakkai ronbunshū = Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Vol. 83; no. 846; p. 16-00235
• Main Authors: OKINO, Tomohiro, NAKAI, Kazuma, TAKANO, Junichi, ENAMI, Shota, NAGAO, Yutaka, OGAWA, Masaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers 2017
• Subjects: Finite element method; Human engineering; Impact test; Passenger seat; Railway
• ISSN: 2187-9761
• DOI: 10.1299/transjsme.16-00235

In the event of a level crossing accident, train passengers seated in a rotating and reclining seat have a risk of getting injured due to collision with seats in front of them. In order to evaluate the passenger's kinematic behavior and injury quantitatively in this situation, firstly the authors carried out dynamic tests by striking the seats with an impactor to grasp the physical properties of the seat in terms of dynamic strength. Secondly, the authors carried out impact tests using crash-test dummies, and FE analyses under the same condition as the tests. As a result, it was clarified numerically that the most important passenger's part to which attention should be paid was the femur, and the head and the chest had a low risk of serious injury. However, if the impact acceleration was increased, the forward seat was not able to catch the passenger because of its revolution or deformation and there was a possibility of injury caused by jumping out forward. Furthermore, the numerical results obtained by the FE analyses by means of a rigid dummy model developed for the automobile were generally consistent with the empirical results in terms of dummy's behavior and injury values.