Biomechanical systems applied to safety in transportation means

The human being is not naturally constituted in such a way that it can withstand the extreme stresses of certain modern transportation means such as the car, train or plane. "Artificial" protection systems take over the body and attempt to protect it in every way when exposed to an accident. This article presents the biomechanical systems applied to safety in transportation means. A modeling by finite elements of the human head is presented; it allows for the understanding of injury mechanisms and their tolerance limits. The applications to protection systems, such as the motorcyclist helmet and the car windshield are then detailed. Other applications are also dealt with in domains as varied as child protection, ballistics or forensics.