Pedestrian hip impact simulator development and hood edge location consideration on injury severity

Pritz, H. B.; Pereira, J. M.

Affiliations

¹National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Abstract

This paper describes an upper leg impact simulator that is representative of the dynamics of impacts between the pedestrian hip or upper leg and the vehicle hood edge.

Cadaver tests have been analyzed to obtain the actual velocity of the upper leg as it strikes the hood edge. It is found that the impact velocity of the hip or upper leg onto the hood edge is approximately one third of the vehicle velocity for a conventional vehicle front.

The MADYMO computer program is used to study the effects of different hood edge locations, relative to the bumper, on the total body dynamics of the pedestrian. It is found that changes in the location of the hood edge cause significant changes in the head and torso impact with the hood of the vehicle.

Several techniques are discussed for examining the benefits of different hood edge locations on total body injury. One of these, an influence factor, combines injury information from actual accident data for the various parts of the body with the impact forces from the mathematical simulations. Based on this factor, there appears to be a hood edge location that may mitigate injuries to both children and adults.

Links

DOI: 10.4271/831627

SAE: 831627

Cited By (3)

Year	Entry
2015	Simms CK, Wood D, Fredriksson R. Pedestrian injury biomechanics and protection. In: Yoganandan N, Nahum AM, Melvin JW, eds. Accidental Injury: Biomechanics and Prevention. 3rd ed. New York: Springer; 2015:721-753.
1985	European Experimental Vehicle Committee. Pedestrian injury protection by car design. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). July 1-4, 1985; Oxford, England.965-976. SAE 856112.
1985	Maeda K, Isobe H, Sakuma Y, Kurihara Y. Research concentrated on an experimental method for protecting pedestrians. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Technical Conference on Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESV). July 1-4, 1985; Oxford, England.999-1008. SAE 856115.