Research was performed in an attempt to better define tolerance levels (magnitude of loading that yields a specific degree of injury) of the human thigh. The objectives of this study are to ultimately provide data to be used in the enhancement of crash dummy biofidelity and the development of artificial bone for a frangible experimental dummy (FrED©).

For this study, seventy femurs and twenty-five intact lower limbs from embalmed human cadavers have been subjected to dynamic impact loading. The bones and limbs were mounted in one of two different configurations that simulate:​ 1. Standing Specimens were simply-supported with the long axis placed perpendicular to the plane of impact and the direction of impact was either anteriorposterior or lateral-medial. 2. Sitting- Specimens were suspended by cord with the long axis parallel to the plane of impact. Mass was placed at the proximal end of these bones or limbs to emulate constraints imparted by the pelvis and other upper-body components. The impact points in this configuration were the condyles of the femurs or the flexed knee of the intact legs.

The impact apparatus consists of an accelerator that propels a cart headed by a pipe/ or plate instrumented with a force transducer. This provided a data record of the transient (ms) relationship of the force (kN) applied to the specimen during impact. The gross response of the thigh to dynamic impact was recorded by standard 30 frames/s VHS video. Several impacts were also captured on a Kodak Ektapro high-speed video system at 1,000 frames/s. Additional data were collected from radiographs and photographs.

The femur appears stronger when impacted in the anterior~to-posterior (a-p) direction than the lateral-tornedial (l-m) direction. Also, soft tissue damage was masked due to the fixation process, and it was concluded that the soft tissue did not play a role in affecting fracture outcome.