Seatbelt High Strain Rate Test

In the automotive field, the safety of passengers is key and many research and development efforts have been put to ensure each critical safety component is tested and up to standard. Seatbelts play a big role in car safety as it decreases the momentum of passengers, reducing the force of secondary impacts with interiors and prevents passengers from being ejected from a vehicle in a crash or a sudden stop. This greatly reduces the risk of major injuries when used in conjunction with other safety features such as airbags and shock absorbing mechanism in dashboards and steering wheel columns. In addition to tensile strength and durability of seatbelts, the behavior of seatbelt materials under high strain rate is a topic of interest, as polymers exhibit different mechanical properties under high strain rate impact during crashes without breaking.

In order to meet the challenges of characterizing high strain rate behavior of seatbelt material, Instron developed a long stroke variation of the High Strain Rate Testing System VHS. Its static capacity sits at 35 kN, dynamic capacity at 50 kN with a nominal stroke of 600 mm and a maximum test velocity of 20 m/s, which is sufficient for more compliant polymeric components. We have also developed accompanying custom grip fixtures and incorporating DIC onto the system as a non-contact strain measurement system, offering an integrated solution for testing compliant materials under high strain rate.