In occupant safety simulations it is desirable to extend existing rigid body occupant models towards deformable finite Element models. Thereby a wider range of occupant / structure interactions can be covered and a better accuracy can be achieved.

This paper describes some aspects of the FE modelling of the EUROSID thorax for use in an explicit finite Element code. first a single rib model is evaluated, then a full thorax is generated and inserted into a rigid body Dummy model. Experimental results from impactor tests serve as a basis for the validation of the model.