Overview
ISO/TR 12349-2:2015 provides ISO's recommended infant and child crash test dummies and related instrumentation for evaluating child restraint systems in frontal impacts and out-of-position (OOP) interactions with frontal or side airbags. The Technical Report consolidates expert review of widely available dummies based on biofidelity, repeatability, durability and instrumentation capability. It represents practical guidance for test laboratories, manufacturers and regulatory or consumer test programs.
Key Topics
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Recommended dummies for frontal impact tests:
- CRABI 12-month old
- Hybrid III 3-year old (for forward-facing child restraints only)
- Q3
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Recommended dummies for out-of-position (OOP) airbag tests:
- CRABI 12-month old
- Hybrid III 3-year old
- Hybrid III 6-year old
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Dummy instrumentation guidance:
- Instrumentation recommendations align with instrumentation required by ISO test procedures and include required and some optional sensor sets.
- For the CRABI 12-month old, recommended instrumentation covers head, neck (head/C1 and C7/torso loads and moments), thorax, lumbar and pelvis accelerations and loads.
- For Hybrid III and Q3 child dummies, recommended instrumentation includes head linear accelerations, neck loads and moments, spine and sternum accelerations, sternum deflection, pelvis accelerations and ASIS/acetabulum loads; Hybrid III 6-year also includes lower extremity femur loads and moments.
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Limitations noted in the report:
- No consensus was reached to recommend infant or child dummies specifically for side impact tests at the time of publication.
- Dummies protected by intellectual property were not considered in the review.
Applications
ISO/TR 12349-2:2015 supports practical use cases and improves consistency across testing programs:
- Manufacturers can select appropriate child dummies and instrumentation when validating restraint systems and seats.
- Test laboratories and certification bodies can align test setups for frontal and OOP airbag evaluations with ISO recommendations.
- Regulatory agencies and consumer test organizations can reference the Technical Report to inform test protocols and improve comparability of results.
Benefits include enhanced repeatability and comparability of child restraint evaluations, clearer instrumentation requirements, and improved assessment of OOP airbag interactions.
Related Standards
- ISO/TR 14645 - Test procedures for evaluating child restraint interactions with deploying airbags
- ISO/TR 10982 - Test procedures for evaluating out-of-position occupant interactions with deploying airbags
- ISO/TR 14933 - Test procedures for evaluating occupant interactions with deploying side impact airbags
This Technical Report is part of the ISO series on dummies for restraint system testing and provides targeted guidance for selecting child crash test dummies and sensor suites used in frontal impact and OOP airbag scenarios.
