In phase 1, two concepts will be evaluated in the design of a temperature-insensitive, tunable ribs for crash test and dummies. Efforts will be made to identify an optimum laminate structure, including the laminate material and the adhesive, through modeling. Methods of augmenting damping such as piezo-electric based systems will be evaluated. The second concept to be evaluated will be the use all from Particle Impact Damper in the design of the ribs. Prototypes of both concept ribs will be built and tested in a serious of tests to evaluate their performance. The performance of concept ribs will be compared with that of current ribs. Concept ribs will also be tested at different temperatures to ensure that they are temperature-insensitive. Anticipated results and potential commercial application: the development off temperature-insensitive, tunable ribs will reduce the burden on test laboratories of keeping the dummy at constant temperature during tests. Tunability will allow replacement of parts of the rib system and reduced cost to the test laboratories.
Keywords: Tunable damper; particle impact damping; and Laminates; crash test dummies.
