Original Article
  • Correlation Analysis between Wheelchair Multi-layer Headrest Foam Properties and Injury Index
  • Sungwook Cho*, Seungmin Ji*, Seong S. Cheon*†

  • * Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduated School, Kongju National University

  • Wheelchair Multi-layer headrest foam 특성과 상해지수간 상관관계 분석
  • 조성욱*· 지승민*· 전성식*†

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Although the development of transportation means has realized the right to mobility for the disabled who have difficulty in moving, it can be said that the improvement of the safety of passengers with disabilities that can occur in a car accident is lower than that of ordinary passenger seats. In particular, in the case of a rear-end collision that can occur suddenly, it is a reality that disabled passengers are vulnerable to head and neck injuries. Therefore, in this study, a multi-layer headrest foam that divides the headrest into three parts in the coronal plane was proposed to improve the head and neck injury index of disabled passengers in the vehicle in the event of a rear-end collision of a wheelchair transport vehicle. A range of stress scale factors was selected to give various compressive characteristics of the foam through low-speed rear-end collision analysis through a simple model, and GA optimization was performed by specifying the range as a parameter. Through the optimization result, the phase relationship between HIC and NIC was analyzed according to the compression characteristics of the layers. HIC responded most sensitively to the compression characteristics of the front layer and NIC responded to the compression characteristics of the mid layer, and the compression characteristics of the rear layer showed the lowest. A normal headrest and an optimized multi-layer headrest were placed in the validation model to analyze the low-speed rear-end collision sled test, and HIC and NIC were derived lower in the multi-layer headrest than in the general headrest. The compression behavior of the multi-layer headrest was also clearly shown, and it was verified that the multi-layer headrest was effective in improving the injury index of the head and neck compared to the general headrest.


교통수단의 발전은 이동이 불편한 장애인들의 이동권 보장을 실현하였지만 차량사고시 발생할 수 있는 장애인 탑승객의 안전 향상은 일반 승객좌석에 비해 낮다고 할 수 있다. 특히 갑자기 발생할 수 있는 후방 추돌 사고의 경우 장애인 탑승객의 머리와 목 부상에 취약한 것이 현실이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 휠체어 운송 차량의 후방 추돌 시 차량내 장애인 탑승객의 머리와 목 상해지수 개선을 위해 headrest를 관상면으로 3등분한 multi-layer headrest foam이 제안되었다. 간이 모델을 통한 저속 후방 추돌 해석을 통해 foam의 다양한 압축 특성을 부여하기 위한 stress scale factor의 범위가 선정되었으며, 해당 범위를 parameter로 지정하여 GA최적화가 수행되었다. 최적화결과를 통해 layer의 압축 특성에 따른 HIC와 NIC간의 상간관계 분석이 이뤄졌으며, HIC는 Front layer, NIC는 Mid layer의 압축 특성에 가장 민감하게 반응하였고 Rear layer의 압축 특성은 가장 낮게 나타났다. Validation model에 일반headrest와 최적화된 multi-layer headrest를 각각 배치하여 저속 후방 추돌 sled test 해석을 수행하였으며, 일반headrest대비 multi-layer headrest에서의 HIC와 NIC가 낮게 도출되었다. multi-layer headrest에서의 압축 거동 역시 명확하게 나타나 multi-layer headrest가 일반headrest대비 머리와 목의 상해지수 개선에 효과적인 것이 검증되었다.


Keywords: 후방 추돌(Rear-end collision), Multi-layer headrest foam, HIC(Head Injury Criteria), NIC(Neck Injury Criteria)

This Article

Correspondence to

  • Seong S. Cheon
  • * Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduated School, Kongju National University

  • E-mail: sscheon@kongju.ac.kr