Analysis of driver’s seat rigidity in the case of rear-end collisions using a virtual multibody model

Abstract The aim of the paper was to analyse the injury potential of the occupant in the case where the backrest of the seat had lower value than normal simulating a broken seat for a rear-end collision. The study was conducted using a virtual environment and a multibody model for the occupant. Two test scenarios were taken into account, a rear end collision at 50 km/h with the normal seat and the second where the seat had a lower rigidity value. The results of the simulation show that while the head acceleration values were similar, due to the “whiplash “phenomenon when the seat had a lower rigidity, the injury potential for the occupant was two times higher compared to the normal seat.