A dummy gets into Kettering

The latest member of the Crash Test Safety Lab team at Kettering University arrived Wednesday, June 9. His name is SpartaKUs, and he will be a key player in crash-test safety research at Kettering.

SpartaKUs is a dummy—a crash-test dummy (Figure 1). While mute on most topics, he will speak volumes when all his instrumentation is installed in early 2005 and he begins being used in crash tests in the Crash Lab at the new Mott Engineering and Science Center.

Donated by Robert A. Denton Inc. (Rochester Hills, MI), SpartaKUs is a 50th percentile male anthropomorphic test device (ATD). "Fully instrumented, an ATD is worth approximately $130,000," said Dr. Janet Brelin-Fornari, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering and coordinator of the Crash Lab.

"In addition to donating the dummy for in-house educational purposes, Robert A. Denton Inc. will give Kettering free lease of any other sized crash-test dummy needed for research projects," said Brelin-Fornari; included in these research projects is an infant/child seat project already in the planning stages.

An engineering and technology university located in Flint, MI, Kettering University is based on the professional cooperative education model. Kettering students attend college year-round, rotating three-month semesters with three-month professional work experiences related to their field of study.

Automotive Crash Safety was added to the Kettering curriculum in 2001. The first course, Automotive Occupant Protection, was the brainchild of Dr. Patrick Atkinson, an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering. The donation of the crash-test dummy will bring a hands-on element to the course.

"Until recently, Kettering had not addressed the issue of crash-test safety academically and was more oriented to engineering fundamentals and building automobiles. Now, we are moving into the area of crash-test safety as part of an engineering education," said Atkinson.

"The Crash Lab has three parts, the deceleration sled, a component test area, and a dedicated computer based classroom," Brelin-Fornari explained.

Takata (Auburn Hills, MI), has also helped make the Crash Lab a reality with donations of data-acquisition equipment, a deceleration crash-test sled, and financial support totaling $50,000. The data-acquisition equipment will enable Kettering researchers to record data in fractions of seconds from sensors on crash-test dummies and the crash-test sled.

The sled (Figure 2) is a dual-pneumatic drive sled, capable of carrying a 3000-lb payload in excess of 35 mph. It is equipped with a four-camera suite of digital video data acquisition as well as onboard and off-board data-acquisition systems for use with the university's crash test dummy.

"When the Crash Lab is operational, we'll be able to load SpartaKUs on the deceleration sled on a buck," said Brelin-Fornari. A buck is a mockup of the interior of a vehicle. Researchers will sit test dummies into the buck and place it on the sled along with vehicle safety systems (airbags, seat belts), instrumentation, and high-speed video cameras. They will then propel the buck down a track at speeds up to 42 mph and decelerate it abruptly using pneumatics to simulate a crash.

The second part of the test lab, the component test area, allows researchers to study the impact of a dummy's head or legs on specific automotive components, such as a steering wheel or an instrumentation panel. The third part of the test lab, the computer classroom, allows students to review data from the test instrumentation and learn how to set up and perform virtual crash tests.

In addition to augmenting the undergraduate and graduate curriculum and research, the Crash Lab will be used for community education (i.e., K through 12 education, driver training, and Safe Kids Programs), summer university programs, consulting, product development, and research by outside companies.

Robert A. Denton and Takata are not the only supporters of the Kettering Crash Lab. Other donors include AAA of Michigan, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, Biomet, Autoliv, Lear, TRW, and Via Systems.

There is also support from the safety industry in the form of an executive advisory board, which helps guide the automotive Crash Safety Program at Kettering. Representatives from the contributing companies named above, as well as several others participate in biannual meetings. To find out more about SpartaKUs and the programs at Kettering University, visit www.news.kettering.edu.