Meet EDDIE – QuakeCoRE’s new earthquake test dummy

Abstract

Until recently there has been limited understanding of the relationship between behaviour during earthquake shaking and risk of injury. Studying human behaviour during shaking is important, however, because with a better understanding of the actions that put people at risk, and the contexts within which these actions occur, we can explore how to enhance safety (including via engineering solutions, or the promotion of life safety actions such as Drop, Cover and Hold). A new research direction will be the introduction of a new partner: EDDIE (Earthquake Dummy for Debris Impact Experiment). Crash test dummies or Anthromorphic Test Devices (ATD) have long been used in the automobile sector to determine the risk of injury and death from vehicle accidents. ATDs can be used to estimate the human kinematics and injury potential for different impact forces.