Dr. William Altenhof’s research interests deal with safety and large materials deformation using numerical, experimental and theoretical techniques. His contributions in the area of child safety, which have been supported by the Auto21 Networks of Centres of Excellence, have resulted in the creation of a number of devices and systems to reduce injury to toddlers in frontal and side automobile crash situations. His research has conceptualized and engineered load limiting anchors for child restraint seats to significantly reduce the potential for head or neck injury to toddlers.
He has also developed an optimized child restraint seat anchor system to reduce lateral displacements of child car seats (and the child occupant) in side crashes, significantly reducing the potential for a contact related injury. He has also integrated safety devices from NASCAR and Formula 1 racing into child safety systems, including a mini head and neck restraining device for children.
Dr. Altenhof’s research group has also achieved the development of an ideal energy absorber which can be tuned for a large range of applications with use in the personal safety equipment, automotive, defense, and aerospace industries. One of his designs is currently seeing an application in a new energy dissipation system for personal safety harnesses. His work in child safety and energy absorbers has achieved international interest, and collaborations with many countries outside of North America have been developed.