Volume 26 Issue 4
Apr.  2026
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WU He-quan, MI Hai-lin, CAI Jin-jue, LI Qi-qi. Impact of seat stiffness and angle on frontal crash injuries for elderly occupants in face-to-face seating configurations[J]. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 2026, 26(4): 319-332. doi: 10.19818/j.cnki.1671-1637.2026.069
Citation: WU He-quan, MI Hai-lin, CAI Jin-jue, LI Qi-qi. Impact of seat stiffness and angle on frontal crash injuries for elderly occupants in face-to-face seating configurations[J]. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 2026, 26(4): 319-332. doi: 10.19818/j.cnki.1671-1637.2026.069
shu

Impact of seat stiffness and angle on frontal crash injuries for elderly occupants in face-to-face seating configurations

doi: 10.19818/j.cnki.1671-1637.2026.069
  • 1.

    College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, Hunan, China

  • 2.

    Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Safety Design and Reliability Technology for Engineering Vehicle, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, Hunan, China

Funds:

National Natural Science Foundation of China 52575266

National Natural Science Foundation of China 52211530054

Science and Technology Innovative Research Team in Higher Educational Institutions of Hunan Province 2024RC1029

Innovative Research Group Project of Hunan Province 2025JJ10006

More Information
  • Corresponding author: WU He-quan, professor, PhD, E-mail: csust_vehicle@hotmail.com
  • Received Date: 2025-04-29
  • Accepted Date: 2025-09-26
  • Rev Recd Date: 2025-07-21
  • Publish Date: 2026-04-28
    Abstract
  • To explore the impact of seat backrest rotational stiffness and angle on the injuries of elderly occupants in face-to-face scenarios during frontal collisions, a frontal crash simulation model at 56 km·h-1 was constructed, incorporating a seat system with the THUMS elderly human body finite element model. By comparing the results with frontal full-vehicle crash tests, the coupling effectiveness between the occupant restraint system and the dummy model was validated. The study focused on investigating the influence of the front seat backrest at the standard 100° angle and the semi-reclined 125° angle, combined with rigid and flexible stiffness characteristics, on kinematic responses and injuries to multiple body regions, including the head, neck, chest, internal organs, and lower extremities, of both front- and rear-row elderly occupants. The results indicate that, in the frontal crash simulation tests, for front-row occupants under both seat angles, the injury probabilities for various body regions in the flexible seat condition were significantly higher than those in the rigid seat condition. In particular, under the 100° flexible seat condition, the head injury values all exceeded the thresholds, indicating a severe risk of head injury. Under the 125° flexible seat condition, the injury risks for various body regions were lower than those under the 100° flexible seat condition. For rear-row occupants, the injury index values for various body regions were generally high, with four rib fractures occurring in the chest, and the strain values of the lungs, heart, and liver exceeding the thresholds by nearly two times. Lower extremity contact occurred for both front- and rear-row occupants but did not exceed the thresholds. Across the four sets of tests, the differences in injury values for various body regions of rear-row occupants were minimal, indicating that the motion of front-row occupants had a limited impact on rear-row occupant injuries. Future seat design needs to consider both rigid structural optimization and angle adjustment to balance safety and comfort, while strengthening the rear restraint system to disperse impact energy.

     

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