本研究主要的目的，在於設計ㄧ新型車輛安全座椅機構，對於駕駛者在後撞事故容易發生的頸部傷害具有降低其發生風險的效果。頸部鞭甩傷害是後撞車禍事故中所引起各類傷害的其中一種，儘管這類傷害致死率不高，但其潛伏期長、併發症多，耗費個人及社會成本甚鉅。尤其是在後撞車禍事故中，如果座椅無法提供適當的保護措施，乘員頭部會因為後撞而快速地向後拉伸又向前彎曲，因而造成頸椎鞭甩傷害，因此，一個具有適當防護效果的車輛安全座椅機構對於防護頸部鞭甩效果有關鍵性的影響。
許多研究單位紛紛發展出具有防護頸部鞭甩效果之安全座椅，這些座椅機構在經過實驗研究證實對於中等體型乘員具有相當防護效果，這些座椅啟動的機制都是利用後撞發生時，乘員因為慣性作用，背部推擠座椅椅背的力量達到某個量值而啟動，此一啟動機制有可能在應該啟動座椅機構的狀況下，卻因為乘員體重較輕，在後撞中推擠椅背的慣性力較小而無法使機構啟動；再者，在一般正常駕駛時，不應啟動座椅機構的狀況下，可能因為乘員本身體重較重而使椅背受力而啟動機構。因此，本研究提出一新型座椅機構，藉由機械式加速度計偵測車輛後撞之加速度，以加速度作為啟動機構的準則，發展出新型的防護鞭甩性傷害座椅機構。
研究方法可以區分為三個階段，第一階段先以機構模擬軟體建立新式座椅機構模型並匯出新式座椅在後撞中的運動情形，第二階段則利用第一階段模擬之座椅運動結果，在多體動力數學模型中模擬不同的人偶模型對於傳統座椅與新式座椅之碰撞情形。第三階段則藉由頸椎傷害量化指標作為評斷模擬中頸椎鞭甩傷害程度的依據，分析不同的人偶模型之受傷程度，討論新式座椅對不同人體在頸部傷害的保護效果。
最後對於本研究所提出的新型座椅機構效果做一總結，討論新型座椅機構之優缺點，提出合理的安全座椅設計概念建議以供日後相關研究發展，希望能夠讓汽車座椅提供乘員更多的保護，以降低後撞產生的頸椎鞭甩傷害。

The main objective of this thesis is to design a new vehicle seat mechanism to prevent from human whiplash injury due to low-energy vehicle rear impact. Several injuries could occur in the rear-end impact and the whiplash injury is among them. Although this kind of injury normally will not lead to fatality, its effect of the injury could be painful and continue long-term. As a result, it might have a serious implication for society. In car crash especially for rear-impact, if the car seat does not work properly, the occupant head could move forward and backward quickly and the neck whiplash injury might happen. Therefore, an appropriate automotive seat mechanism design might be a key to protect the occupant neck from whiplash injury.
Many research groups had developed some safety seat design, which were been proved that their well performance with Hybrid III 50% dummy. The design concept of these seats is utilizing the inertial force of occupant trunk to push seatback and activate the safety mechanism. This mechanism could be invalid if the occupant didn’t have enough inertial force to active the system. For example, the inertial force of small size female might be not heavy enough to activate the safety mechanism. Otherwise, when a large male occupant in the typical driving posture, his weight might switch on the mechanism. Therefore, this research brings up a new concept to design the safety seat mechanism by using the acceleration as criteria to activate the mechanism.
This research can be departed to three stages. In the 1st stage, the software in mechanism analysis is employed to build the new concept seat model. Based on the seat motion resulting form the 1st stage, the interactive occupant-seat model is developed by applying multi-body dynamics in the 2nd stage. The stage simulations include different sizes of human model such as small female, midsize male, and large male model with the conventional seat and new concept seat .The 3rd stage analyzes and compares the available neck injury criterion such as NIC and Nkm values. The effects of the new safety seat mechanism will be verified in this stage as well.
Finally, the new seat mechanism in this research is summarized. The advantage and disadvantage of this seat design are discussed. In addition, the possible future improvements on this seat mechanism are also presented.

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