• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.182-194
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• 1999

Occupant injury in rear end impact is rapidly becoming one of the most aggravating traffic safety problems with high human suffering and societal costs. Although rear end impact occurs at relatively low speed , it may cause permanent disability due to neck injuries resulting from an abrupt moment, shear force , and tension/compression force at the occipital condyles. The analysis is performed for a combined occupant-eat model response, using the SAFE(Safety Analysis for occupant crash Environment) computer program. The computational results are verified by those from sled tests. A parameter study is conducted for many physical and mechanical properties. Seat design has been performed based on the design of experiment process with respect to five parameters; seat-back upholstery stiffness, torsional stiffness of the seat-back. An orthogonal array is selected from the parameter study. A good design has been found from the analysis results based on the orthogonal array. The results show that reductions of stiffness in seat-back upholstery and joint are the most effective for preventing neck injuries.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2011

The RLC systems is one of the intelligent transportation systems that has gained a nation-wide support for last decades and being installed to discourage motorists from running the red lights at signalized intersections. It is taken for granted that the RLC will provide motorists with increased safety, so that their installments are always justifiable. However, in order to acquire more efficiency and wider supports from the general public in future RLC installments, an improved methodology for analyzing the effects of the RLC systems is required. In order to satisfy this requirement, this research performed the following tasks. First, the number of signal violations after the RLC systems were investigated in order to check its resulting effects. Second, the number of crashes after the RLC systems were collected and compared with the number of signal violations. Third, a statistical analysis was carried out to develop the relationships between the signal violations and the crashes based on negative binomial distribution. The analysis revealed that the number of crashes has a close relationship with the RLC placement, traffic volume, vehicle speed, the number of phases, and the number of lanes for major approaches. Finally, based on the results found in this analysis, this research presents a methodology for analyzing the safety effects of placing the RLC that should be of service when investigating the economic consequences of the RLC systems.