Simulation and Analysis of an Automotive Active Head Restraint

Safety is an important aspect in automotive vehicle design. The New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) provides the industry with a quantifiable assessment of the safety of their vehicles. With NCAP moving to introduce head restraint performance as a component of their assessment of vehicle safety, automotive manufacturers are developing methods to improve the safety of their head restraints. The philosophy is to reduce neck injuries., but most occupants do not position the headrest optimally for safety, thus an active system is the most effective approach. Previous assessment of the performance of the active head restraint systems has generally been accomplished by sled tests. Such methods can be a drain on resources, and do not allow for efficient optimisation of the system. A computer model allows for numerous tests to be run to assess the performance of several optimised designs before manufacturing of the seat begins. This paper describes the simulation and analysis of an Active Head Restraint system against a baseline system.