Simulation of foot well intrusion for sled testing

Thelen, Martin; Raffauf, Ralf; Buss, Winfried; Roth, Willi; Hillenbrand, Klaus

There is a high risk of the lower extremities being injured in frontal crashes of passenger cars. Head and chest are well protected nowadays due to safety features like airbags, seat belts and absorbing materials in the interior, while only limited safety improvements have been achieved in the leg area.

In order to investigate the injury mechanism of lower legs, to define development targets and for the assessment of safety devices, PARS developed a tool to reproduce the measured dynamic crash intrusion of the foot well in static and in sled tests. This foot well intrusion system (patent pending) allows the adjustment of both movements of the tirewall, parallel intrusion and rotation effects, nearly independent and in a wide range.

In this paper the functioning principle of this device will be presented. A comparison between real crash tests and experimental simulations with sled tests will be reviewed.

Year

Entry

1994

Pilkey WD, Sieveka EM, Crandall JR, Klopp G. The influence of foot placement and vehicular intrusion on occupant lower limb injury in full-frontal and frontal-offset crashes. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 23-26, 1994; Munich, Germany.734-741.

1991

Morgan RM, Eppinger RH, Hennessey BC. Ankle joint injury mechanism for adults in frontal automotive impact. In: Proceedings of the 35th Stapp Car Crash Conference. November 18-20, 1991; San Diego, CA. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers:189-198. SAE 912902.

1996

Crandall JR, Bass CR, Klopp GS, Pilkey WD. Sled tests with toepan intrusion using post-mortem human surrogates and the Hybrid III dummy. In: Proceedings of the 1996 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 11-13, 1996; Dublin, Ireland.339-354.

Year

Entry

2001

Hesse S, Bläßer S, Hoffmann J. Parameter study on different factors influencing lower extremity injuries. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2001

Rudd RW, Crandall JR, Hjerpe E, Håland Y. Evaluation of lower limb injury mitigation from inflatable carpet in sled tests with intrusion using the Thor Lx. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

2003

Smith BR, Begeman PC, Leland R, Levine RS, Yang KH, King AI. A mechanism of injury to the forefoot in car crashes. In: Proceedings of the 2003 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 25, 2003; Lisbon, Portugal.149-161.

2005

Smith BR, Begeman PC, Leland R, Meehan R, Levine RS, Yang KH, King AI. A mechanism of injury to the forefoot in car crashes. Traffic Inj Prev. 2005;6(2):156-169.