Madelen Fahlstedt, Shiyang Meng, Declan Patton, Andrew S McIntosh, Svein Kleiven
{"title":"Comparison of Concussion Risk Functions Generated from Two Different Datasets.","authors":"Madelen Fahlstedt, Shiyang Meng, Declan Patton, Andrew S McIntosh, Svein Kleiven","doi":"10.4271/2026-22-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4271/2026-22-0004","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To estimate risk of concussion, risk functions based on injuries occurring in sports are often used. A range of datasets have been used to develop injury risk functions for concussion based on either global kinematics or tissue-level predictors. Two such datasets are one from American football, and another one from Australian football and rugby. These two datasets constitute the largest published collections of video-verified concussive cases in sports with known kinematics suitable for constructing risk functions. The objective of this study was to analyze the differences between two datasets of concussion for injury predictions to better understand the influence on injury risk functions. The kinematics were applied to the KTH head model and risk functions for different kinematic- and tissue-based predictors were developed and compared. The accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were also compared. The two datasets evaluated in this study generated different risk curves. The datasets had some similarities such as having no significant difference in resultant linear acceleration, but also some differences, for example having a significant difference in resultant angular velocity. The Australian cases had relatively equally distributed major x-, y-, and z-components for angular velocity while the majority (59%) of the NFL cases had a major x-component (coronal plane rotation) representing more than 50% of the resultant. The y-component of the linear acceleration (lateral direction) was the major component in 64% of the Australian cases and 72% of the NFL cases. The two datasets, from Australian football/rugby, and American football, generated different injury risk curves with a lower 50% risk of concussion for the Australian dataset. This indicates that the choice of data as input for the development of injury risk functions is important. Therefore, it is necessary to improve methodology with focus on sampling methods and reliable/valid data collection.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"70 1","pages":"54-86"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148413304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gretchen H Baker, Yun-Seok Kang, Angelo Marcallini, Ryan Lang, Erin Hutter, Kevin Moorhouse, Amanda M Agnew
{"title":"Female PMHS Thoracic Biomechanical Response Corridors with Preliminary Consideration of the Influence of Breast Tissue in Frontal Impacts.","authors":"Gretchen H Baker, Yun-Seok Kang, Angelo Marcallini, Ryan Lang, Erin Hutter, Kevin Moorhouse, Amanda M Agnew","doi":"10.4271/2026-22-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4271/2026-22-0006","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Thoracic injuries are common for belted occupants in frontal motor vehicle crashes. However, there remains a lack of female post-mortem human subject (PMHS) data in the literature to generate female-specific biomechanical response corridors and evaluate engineering tools such as anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) and computational human body models (HBMs). Additionally, the effect of breast tissue on thoracic response has not been directly investigated despite female ATDs and HBMs having features representing breasts. As such, this study sought to utilize simplified frontal hub impacts to (1) generate female PMHS thoracic response corridors both with breasts positioned with a bra and without breasts (no bra) and (2) preliminarily explore the influence of breasts on the thoracic responses of female PMHS. Twelve female PMHS (9 small and 3 midsize) were subjected to frontal impacts at mid-sternum with a 14.0 kg circular impactor at 4.3 m/s in conditions with and without breasts. Force versus deflection (FD) response corridors were generated, and comparisons were made between groups and to scaled FD corridors representing female response. Overall, female PMHS with and without breasts displayed differences in FD response compared to scaled corridors in terms of the shape of the initial response and peak force and deflection. Additionally, female PMHS with breasts produced lower peak force and greater peak deflection compared to those without breasts. These results suggest the importance of collection and evaluation of female biomechanical data that can be used for continued evaluation of female-specific safety tools as well as the further reduction of injury risk for all occupants during motor vehicle crashes.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"70 1","pages":"100-151"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148413254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Influence of Joint Structure in Multibody Model on Behavior Analysis of Crash Test Dummy.","authors":"Masatoshi Usui, Yasuhiro Matsui, Naruyuki Hosokawa, Yoshinori Tanaka","doi":"10.4271/2026-22-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4271/2026-22-0005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study developed a new multibody model that accurately represents the collision behavior of crash test dummies using PC-Crash. The model replicates the shape and weight of an actual dummy. To investigate the influence of joint structures on collision behavior, an additional multibody model was developed to reproduce the joint structure of the actual dummy. These models were applied to analyze occupant behavior in a full-frontal rigid barrier and pedestrian behavior in a vehicle-to-pedestrian impact experiments. A comparison of the multibody model simulations with actual dummy impact experiments revealed that the behavior of the multibody model, which simulates the joint structure of the dummy, closely matched that of the actual dummy. The results indicate that joint structure significantly influences collision behavior, and accurately recreating it improves the precision of crash test dummy collision behavior analysis using PC-Crash.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"70 1","pages":"87-99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148413261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shiyang Meng, Ron Schindler, Svein Kleiven, Nils Lubbe
{"title":"Traumatic Brain Injury in Vulnerable Road Users: Analysis of German In-Depth Crash Data to Inform Targeted Prevention.","authors":"Shiyang Meng, Ron Schindler, Svein Kleiven, Nils Lubbe","doi":"10.4271/2026-22-0003","DOIUrl":"10.4271/2026-22-0003","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Road traffic crashes are a major cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly among vulnerable road users (VRUs). However, current injury prevention strategies often overlook the heterogeneity of TBI-which include various injury types and severities-leading to an oversimplified approach to evaluating helmets and safety systems in regulations and ratings. To identify priority TBI types and severities in VRUs and to inform targeted prevention strategies, the German In-Depth Accident Study database was analyzed and a pathoanatomic classification system, i.e., Abbreviated Injury Scale, was employed. AIS 2 (moderate) TBIs account for 70-80% of all brain injuries across VRU groups, nearly half of which are concussions. For helmeted cyclists, milder TBIs are at a greater percentage than for unhelmeted cyclists. These findings highlight the need for expanding prevention efforts to include AIS 2+ injuries. Key injury types observed include concussion (with and without loss of consciousness), skull base fracture, subdural hemorrhage, contusion and laceration. New mechanism-specific injury criteria may be needed to address these injuries. The strong similarity in injury type ranking among different road users (the Kendall's tau values ranged from 0.90 to 0.93) suggests similar needs for injury prevention. A new brain injury assessment criterion may serve all road user types.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"70 ","pages":"42-53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148158390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Occupant Sex Equity and Vehicle Safety: Historical Activities, Research, and Countermeasure.","authors":"Priya Prasad, Dainius J Dalmotas","doi":"10.4271/2026-22-0002","DOIUrl":"10.4271/2026-22-0002","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Since 2019, sex equity in traffic crashes has been a highly debated topic in vehicle safety, especially following the 2019 study by Forman et al. (1) claiming that female occupants face a 73 percent greater risk of serious injury in frontal crashes compared to male occupants. This was soon followed by a Consumer Reports Article by Keith Barry (2), which attempted to identify underlying factors contributing to the higher risk. These have been embraced by several parties since 2019. Firstly, it was alleged that vehicle design practice over the last four decades considered safety for the male population only and ignored that of the female as evidenced by the exclusive use of the mid-sized male Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs) in Regulatory and Safety Ratings tests and not with an average sized female ATD. The absence of such an ATD for testing of vehicles \"set the course for four decades' worth of car safety design, with deadly consequences\" (2). Secondly, although there is a recognition of the fact that Regulatory testing with a Small Female ATD, the Hybrid III-05F, was introduced in the FMVSS208 in 2003, this ATD was only a scaled version of the average male ATD of the 1970's implying that this ATD is incapable of driving the design of restraint systems for females due to \"They're put together differently. Their material properties-their structure-is different\" (2). Thirdly, according to a quote \"These same trends have been observed in many, many studies in the past.\" We assume that the trends refer to the apparent disparity in safety of females when compared to those of males. This document aims to outline historical activities, associated research and the development of countermeasures addressing crashworthiness concerns related to vehicle safety for females, as well as factors affecting both males and females, such as age-related impacts. This paper deals mainly with the frontal crash modes, mentions side impacts briefly as it affected designs of inflatable restraints for side impact to protect the smaller portion of the population from inflation induced injuries but the history behind the use of female ATDs by IIHS and NHTSA in full scale testing is not covered. Where ever possible, the time periods of reported activities related to female safety have been divided to pre-1997 corresponding to a change in US frontal crash regulation to address serious-to-fatal injuries to females and children, between 1997 to 2003 corresponding to the proposal by Canada for its frontal impact standard, and between 2003 and 2006 when the Advanced Restraint Regulation in the US FMVSS 208 was promulgated. This was followed by activities between 2007 and 2019, and post 2019 period.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"70 ","pages":"31-41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148158453","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Karthik Somasundaram, Klaus Driesslein, Frank A Pintar
{"title":"PMHS Sled Testing of Reclined Small Female Occupants: Pelvic Dynamics and Injury Evaluation.","authors":"Karthik Somasundaram, Klaus Driesslein, Frank A Pintar","doi":"10.4271/2026-22-0001","DOIUrl":"10.4271/2026-22-0001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As automated vehicle technologies enable increased seat recline angles during travel, understanding the biomechanics of injury under these novel occupant postures becomes imperative. This study evaluated the pelvis injury response and associated kinematics of reclined small female post-mortem human surrogates (PMHS) subjected to frontal sled tests across three restraint configurations. Each configuration varied in seat stiffness and the presence of a knee bolster to assess their influence on pelvic dynamics and submarining risk. Nine PMHS tests were conducted using a consistent reclined posture (38° thorax, 75-80° pelvis angle) and production restraint systems. Submarining probability was estimated using a validated logistic regression referenced from previous study. Distinct pelvic kinematics, fracture patterns, and associated injury mechanisms emerged across the test configurations in the current dataset. Configuration 1, featuring a stiffer seat without a knee bolster, exhibited complex pelvic fractures-most notably iliac wing fractures resulting from inward bending of the ilium-and a higher probability of submarining primarily due to rearward pelvic rotation. In contrast, Configuration 2, with a compliant seat and no knee bolster, produced comminuted iliac wing fractures, dominated by shear component and a moderate probability of submarining driven primarily by downward pelvic displacement. Configuration 3, which included a knee bolster, showed injury propagation to the posterior pelvis, and none of the subjects submarined. Each configuration included three specimens; therefore, results should be interpreted with caution. Despite the small sample size, the findings highlight the critical influence of seat stiffness and restraint design on pelvic kinematics and injury mechanisms under reclined conditions. The data provided could serve in validating computational models and anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) in reclined seating configurations.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"70 ","pages":"1-30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148158432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rosalie Connell, Gretchen H Connell, Julie A Mansfield
{"title":"Quantifying Naturalistic Changes in Occupant Postures in Belt-Positioning Booster Seats Utilizing Pressure Mats.","authors":"Rosalie Connell, Gretchen H Connell, Julie A Mansfield","doi":"10.4271/2025-22-0008","DOIUrl":"10.4271/2025-22-0008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Belt-positioning booster seats (BPBs) help promote proper seat belt fit for children in vehicles. The effectiveness of BPBs depends on occupant posture, which can be influenced by BPB design features. This study aimed to quantitatively describe how children's postures naturally change over time in BPBs, using pressure mats. Thirty children aged 5 to 12 participated in two 30-minute trials using randomly assigned seating configurations. Five configurations were studied by installing two backless BPBs in vehicle captain's chairs, varying booster profile (high, low, or no BPB) and armrest presence (with or without BPB/vehicle seat armrests). TekScan 5250 pressure mats were placed on the seating surfaces. Children began in an ideal reference posture, and center of force (COF) data were collected continuously. Additional observations on posture, behavior, and comfort were periodically collected. Mixed models, including effects of seating configuration, time, and volunteer characteristics, were used to explore changes in COF position from the reference position with time. Children assumed a variety of postures. Over time, children showed a statistically significant forward COF shift of 2.5 cm from the initial posture across all trials (p = 0.003). No significant differences were found in the average COF position or translation between seating configurations in the fore-aft (x) or inboard-outboard (y) directions. However, the maximum and cumulative COF translation in the x-direction was significantly influenced by booster profile, with high-profile configurations resulting in the least amount of translation. Children tended to slouch over time, as evidenced by an average forward COF translation of 2.5 cm over thirty minutes. These findings were supported by video footage and posture data. Trends toward forward COF translation were most apparent in low-profile and no booster configurations. Such changes in booster occupant postures can imply increased injury risk, specifically associated with submarining as evaluated in previous computational investigations. Future research should examine these trends in real-world driving environments and assess how specific BPB design elements may support better long-term posture during vehicle travel.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"69 ","pages":"192-218"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145811439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xiaoyang Song, Wenbo Sun, Jingwen Hu, Carol Flannagan, Jared Karlow, Patrick Bowman, Iskander Farooq, Anil Kalra
{"title":"Pedestrian Injury Case Reconstruction through Data Fusion and Machine Learning.","authors":"Xiaoyang Song, Wenbo Sun, Jingwen Hu, Carol Flannagan, Jared Karlow, Patrick Bowman, Iskander Farooq, Anil Kalra","doi":"10.4271/2025-22-0007","DOIUrl":"10.4271/2025-22-0007","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The proportion of pedestrian injuries in motor-vehicle-crash-induced injuries in the U.S. has been increasing in recent years. Although extensive police-reported data on pedestrian injuries is available, the incomplete nature of the crash and injury information in these datasets presents a significant challenge for statistical injury analysis and pedestrian protection research. This study aims to address this issue by combining simulation data and field data to impute critical missing crash information in pedestrian crash cases through machine learning techniques. A total of 9,000 MADYMO simulations were generated using maximal projection design, incorporating variables such as pedestrian demographics, crash conditions, and vehicle impact parameters. Gaussian process (GP) surrogate models were trained to predict injury risks with simulation parameters calibrated using the complete crash information in the Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS) dataset. Maximum likelihood estimations were then employed to impute the missing vehicle speed in Linked Michigan Trauma dataset. Validation involved comparing the imputed vehicle speed distribution with that of the PCDS dataset and verifying four CIREN cases reconstructed by both the proposed method and a physics-based approach. The histogram of the reconstructed vehicle speeds in Linked Michigan Trauma dataset highly correlated with that from the PCDS dataset. In the four CIREN cases, the absolute deviation between the reconstruction vehicle speeds from the proposed method and physics-based approach was 9 kph on average, with the predicted injury risks matched the observed AIS levels. These results support the use of machine learning for reconstructing missing crash data and enhancing pedestrian injury risk modeling.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"69 ","pages":"181-191"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145811486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human Detection Capacity of Vehicle Front Sonar Sensors in Light and Small Passenger Cars and Minivan.","authors":"Yasuhiro Matsui, Shoko Oikawa","doi":"10.4271/2025-22-0009","DOIUrl":"10.4271/2025-22-0009","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sonar sensor systems have been developed to prevent collisions between vehicles and surrounding objects by employing ultrasonic sensors mounted at the front of the vehicle. These systems warn drivers when nearby obstacles are detected. However, relatively few studies have examined the capacity of sonar to detect humans. This study aims to clarify the human detection capacity of front sonar sensors installed in two light passenger cars (LPC-I and LPC-II), one small passenger car (SPC), and one minivan (MNV). The LPC-I, SPC, and MNV were equipped with center and corner sensors, whereas the LPC-II had only corner sensors. Three volunteers-a child, an adult female, and an adult male-participated in the study. Human detectability was assessed using the \"maximum detection distance ratio,\" defined as the ratio of the maximum detection distance for a volunteer to that for a standard pipe. The results showed that both the center and corner sensors consistently detected front- and side-facing human volunteers. For front-facing human volunteers, the maximum detection distance ratios relative to the pipe were 99-101% (child), 93-101% (adult female), and 98-101% (adult male) for the center sonar sensor, and 99-102%, 94-102%, and 96-100% for the corner sensor. For side-facing human volunteers, the corresponding ratios were 97-100%, 92-97%, and 94-99% for the center sensor, and 95-99%, 91-98%, and 93-98% for the corner sensor. These detection ratios were closely aligned with those of the pipe. These findings suggest that front sonar sensors can effectively detect humans prior to vehicle motion initiation, indicating their potential to reduce low-speed vehicle collisions with nearby pedestrians.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"69 ","pages":"219-236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146107698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Wenbo Sun, Jingwen Hu, Yang-Shen Lin, Kyle Boyle, Matthew Reed, Zhaonan Sun, Jason Hallman
{"title":"Improve Safety Balance between Women and Men in Frontal Crashes through Parametric Human Modeling and Adaptive Design Optimization.","authors":"Wenbo Sun, Jingwen Hu, Yang-Shen Lin, Kyle Boyle, Matthew Reed, Zhaonan Sun, Jason Hallman","doi":"10.4271/2025-22-0010","DOIUrl":"10.4271/2025-22-0010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objective: </strong>Previous studies have reported disparity in injuries between male and female drivers in the risk of certain types of injuries in frontal crashes that may be due to a myriad of sex-related differences, including body size, shape, anatomy, or sitting posture. The objectives of this study are 1) to use mesh-morphing methods to generate a diverse set of human body models (HBMs) representing a wide range of body sizes and shapes for both sexes, 2) conduct population-based frontal crash simulations, and 3) explore adaptive restraint design strategies that may lead to enhanced safety for the whole population while mitigating potential differences in injury risks between male and female drivers.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A total of 200 HBMs with a wide range of body sizes and shapes were generated by morphing the THUMS v4.1 midsize male model into geometries predicted by the statistical human geometry models. Ten male and ten female HBMs were selected for population-based simulations. An existing automated simulation framework was leveraged to rapidly set up crash simulations with the morphed HBMs and previously-validated driver compartment and restraint models. A total of 1,000 frontal crash simulations were performed under varied restraint designs and crash severities. A surrogate model was developed based on the simulation data using a Gaussian Process (GP) method. Two design optimization schemes were used to flexibly adjust design parameters based on subject variables to minimize population injury risks while minimizing differences in injury risk between male and female HBMs.</p><p><strong>Key results: </strong>The simulations indicated that the joint injury probability (Pjoint) is more sensitive to the seatbelt and driver airbag variables at 35 mph, while the variability is greatly reduced at 25 mph for all design variables. The optimal adaptive design strategy from these models suggested a higher seat belt load limit, higher airbag inflation pressure, smaller airbag venting, and higher steering column force for occupants with higher body mass index (BMI). The adaptive design reduced the population Pjoint by 19.6%, 31.8% and 38.8% from the baseline design when Delta-V equals to 25, 30 and 35 mph, respectively. For high speed crashes (Delta-V = 35 mph), the proposed adaptive design reduced the average Pjoint differences between men and women from 24.02% to 2.84% compared to the baseline design. Surprisingly, a restraint strategy constrained to sex-based balance is able to maintain similar injury risks between male and female drivers.</p><p><strong>Major conclusion: </strong>This study is the first to integrate finite element crash simulations with adaptive restraint design optimization to potentially reduce population injury risks and safety balance between male and female occupants. Gaussian process was shown to be an effective surrogate to FE simulations.</p>","PeriodicalId":35289,"journal":{"name":"Stapp car crash journal","volume":"69 ","pages":"237-249"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146107703","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}