Evaluation of chest injury mechanisms in nearside oblique frontal impacts

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Iraeus, Johan¹; Lindquist, Mats¹; Wistrand, Sofie²; Sibgård, Elin²; Pipkorn, Bengt³

Evaluation of chest injury mechanisms in nearside oblique frontal impacts

57th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM)

© Annals of Advances in Automotive Medicine

Affiliations

¹Department of Surgical and Perioperative Science, Umeå University, Sweden

²ÅF Industry AB, Sweden

³Autoliv Research, Sweden
Abstract

Despite the use of seat belts and modern safety systems, many automobile occupants are still seriously injured or killed in car crashes. Common configurations in these crashes are oblique and small overlap frontal impacts that often lead to chest injuries.

To evaluate the injury mechanism in these oblique impacts, an investigation was carried out using mathematical human body model simulations. A model of a simplified vehicle interior was developed and validated by means of mechanical sled tests with the Hybrid III dummy. The interior model was then combined with the human body model THUMS and validated by means of mechanical PMHS sled tests. Occupant kinematics as well as rib fracture patterns were predicted with reasonable accuracy.

The final model was updated to conform to modern cars and a simulation matrix was run. In this matrix the boundary conditions, ΔV and PDOF, were varied and rib fracture risk as a function of the boundary conditions was evaluated using a statistical framework.

In oblique frontal impacts, two injury producing mechanisms were found; (i) diagonal belt load and (ii) side structure impact. The second injury mechanism was found for PDOFs of 25˚-35˚, depending on ΔV. This means that for larger PDOFs, less ΔV is needed to cause a serious chest injury.
Links

PubMedCentral: PMC3861827

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Cited By (5)

Year	Entry
2019	Kawabuchi T, Dokko Y. Evaluation of thoracic deflection criteria in frontal collision using thoracic impactor simulation with human body FE model. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 10-13, 2019; Eindhoven, Netherlands.
2019	Ishida A, Satoshi T. Injury mechanism and evaluating methods for small overlap and oblique frontal crashes. In: Proceedings of the 26th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 10-13, 2019; Eindhoven, Netherlands.
2016	Montesinos Acosta S, Ash JH, Lessley DJ, Shaw CG, Heltzel SB, Crandall JR. Comparison of whole body response in oblique and full frontal sled tests. In: Proceedings of the 2016 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 14-16, 2016; Malaga, Spain.740-754.
2015	Gaewsky JP, Weaver AA, Koya B, Stitzel JD. Regional-level injury risk sensitivity to pre-crash driver position within simplified real world motor vehicle crash reconstructions. In: Proceedings of the 11th Ohio State University Injury Biomechanics Symposium. May 17-19, 2015; Columbus, OH.
2015	Gaewsky J. Driver Injury Metric and Risk Variability as a Function of Occupant Position in Real World Motor Vehicle Crashes [Master's thesis]. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University; May 2015.