Biosciences Group

UMTRI's Biosciences Group performs research related to the biomechanics of occupant injuries, crash protection, and occupant accommodation. The scope of work encompasses three main areas:

Impact Biomechanics

• Laboratory experiments with human surrogates to study the mechanical response of the human body to dynamic loading and to study the mechanisms and tolerances of the different body regions to injury
• Development of new crash dummies, computational models, test procedures, and injury criteria for evaluating safety countermeasures

Crash Analysis and Investigation

• Analysis of crash datasets, including development of new analysis techniques
• In-depth investigations of crashes to determine mechanisms of injury, assess the performance of occupant protection systems, and identify trends in injuries resulting from motor-vehicle crashes

Engineering Anthropometry and Vehicle Ergonomics

• Testing with volunteer subjects to characterize their seated posture, restraint interaction, ingress/egress, and external anthropometry
• Development of models of occupant body dimensions and vehicle interior design factors
• Development of realistic seating procedures for crash dummies and virtual occupants