Human body finite element models (FEMs) are ideal tools to explore the effects of body habitus on the biomechanical response of a given subject in a vehicle crash. This study aims to investigate the differences between a large male (M95) FEM and an average male (M50). The models are identical aside from their respective morphologies. The same generic frontal crash driver-side buck was used with each model with an acceleration pulse from a late model NCAP crash. The HIC15 of the M50 and M95 models were 491 and 806. The Brain Injury Criteria values for the M50 and M95 models were 0.50 and 0.64, respectively. Neck Injury Criteria for the M50 and M95 models were 0.44 and 0.41, respectively. The percent chest deflections were 21.1% for M50 and 17.3% for M95. Equal stress, equal velocity scaling was used to scale M95 outputs to the M50. Mass scaling was found to increase correlation of signal phases, but had diminished effect on magnitude and shape. Given the global trend of increased size of occupants, this study provides insight into the effects of body habitus on the occupant kinematics and injury risk in frontal crash.
Keywords:
Finite Element (FE), Human Body Modelling (HBM), injury biomechanics, large male, model morphing