ABSTRACT
The Federal Aviation Administration has a number of standards and regulations that are designed to protect occupants in the event of a crash. Compliance with these regulations is described in the Code of Federal Regulations 14 CFR 25.562 for transport category aircraft, with similar regulations for other types of aircraft in parts 23, 27, and 29. Compliance with these regulations is typically met through physical testing; however AC 20-146 describes a method of compliance through the use of analytical methods. In order to successfully apply AC 20-146, a virtual Anthropometric Test Device (v-ATD) is needed for the aviation environment. This v-ATD must achieve a level of calibration that is specific to its intended use. Previous models had poor performance for some configurations, such as a typical lap belt only configuration. A rigorous methodology is needed to assess the level of correlation between a simulation and test data. The v-ATD calibration methods should be the first step and can be considered the corollary to the physical calibration methods that an ATD would be subjected to prior to certification testing. Specific performance objectives must be met in order for the v-ATD to support a simulation that meets the certification requirements and will affect the specific uses of the model. These performance objectives maintain flexibility at the system level to allow customization to the detailed design, but must provide some hard guidelines in order for the analysis to be useful
