Design and development of a complementary sled for multistage progression of whiplash testing

Whiplash-associated disorders are a persistent public health concern, frequently resulting from low-speed rear-impact collisions. Full-scale automotive sled tests currently serve as the gold standard for evaluating seat performance, occupant kinematics, and head–neck loading under controlled crash conditions. While these tests provide high-fidelity biomechanical data, their operational cost, complexity, and limited availability make them inefficient for early-stage iterative development. It is the objective of this article to propose a complementary sled testing methodology designed to augment, rather than replace existing full-scale automotive sled protocols, with the goal of improving experimental efficiency, reducing cost, and enabling rapid evaluation of the design variables that govern whiplash testing. This article does not aim to contribute to the science of biomechanics of whiplash injury. Instead, it proposes a four-stage development workflow that introduces a conceptual, lower-energy, modular sled system as an intermediate experimental platform situated between computational simulations and full-scale sled testing. The system emphasizes adjustable pulses, simplified structural fixtures, flexible mounting configurations, and scalable instrumentation options. A tiered testing framework incorporating simulation, complementary sled testing, and final full-scale validation offers a more efficient and cost-effective approach to whiplash research and product development. Although the complementary sled system cannot replicate the full biofidelity of regulatory-grade testing, it provides substantial methodological and operational benefits. This dual-platform strategy aligns with modern engineering demands for accelerated development cycles while maintaining the scientific rigor necessary for occupant safety assessment.