Adaptive Seat Energy Absorbers for Enhanced Crash Safety: Technology Demonstration

Abstract

This research program is intended to design, assemble, and test, both at a component and assembly level, adaptive seat energy absorber (ASEA) technology to retrofit a rotorcraft crew seat. Two adaptive energy absorber (EA) technologies were developed in this research program: 1) rotary magnetorheological EA with magnetic bias and 2) magnetostrictive friction EA. The results of the evaluation of these adaptive seat EA technologies for rotorcraft crashworthiness and safety enhancement are summarized in this report. The low speed crash dynamic sled tests conducted showed great promise for the ASEA technology, with occupant compressive lumbar loads measured to be more than 32 lower than published data for the baseline MH-60R seat with conventional EAs. Moreover, the ASEA used substantially less stroke than the baseline seat, showing that the ASEA can be much more efficient.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1013175

Entities

People

  • Gregory J Hiemenz
  • Jin-Hyeong Yoo
  • Muthuvel Murugan
  • Norman M. Wereley
  • Wei Hu

Organizations

  • United States Army Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Actuators
  • Aircrafts
  • Assembly
  • Control Systems
  • Dynamic Tests
  • Energy Absorbers
  • Fabrication
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Friction
  • Joints (Anatomy)
  • Measurement
  • Mechanics
  • Sled Tests
  • Spine
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Facilities
  • Test Methods

Readers

  • Explosive Engineering.
  • Software Engineering.