Influence of school bus seat spacing on crash protection of six-year olds Online publication date: Wed, 08-Apr-2015
by Peijun Ji; Qing Zhou
International Journal of Vehicle Safety (IJVS), Vol. 8, No. 2, 2015
Abstract: The new school bus regulations of China took effect in 2012. A main difference between the Chinese regulations and the US regulations is that lap belt is required in China, while in the USA, the seatback, to which child collides, is the only occupant restraint required by the state regulations. Seat spacing's effect on occupant protection on school bus was studied by NHTSA using different dummies, but no consistent trend was found. In this study, using finite element modelling, a school bus restraint model is developed, and under frontal impact loading, effects of seat spacing on six-year-old dummy protection are studied and lap-belted and no-lap-belt cases are compared. Kinematics and injury parameter readings of the dummy show that, for non-belted cases, smaller seat spacing results in lower HIC, while for belted cases, properly chosen seat spacing can minimise HIC. For chest acceleration, seat spacing has little effect while belt or no-belt has more prominent effect.
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