This study aims to consolidate the final technical specifications of the Advanced Pedestrian Legform Impactor by expanding the biofidelity evaluation of its finite element model. The biofidelity evaluation is expanded by employing an existing set of post‐mortem human subject lateral impact tests and with a set of human body model lateral and oblique impact simulations. Initial comparisons of the biomechanical response obtained from previous legform‐impactor computational models revealed that the impactors sustained greater bumper and spoiler contact forces than the post‐mortem human subjects in experiments. Moreover, they sustained greater cruciate ligament elongations than the human body models in the oblique impact simulations. The Advanced Pedestrian Legform Impactor model includes a more human‐like lower‐limb mass distribution and a redesigned geometry for the femoral condyle of the knee; the biofidelity and the injury assessment capability of the model were thus re‐evaluated. The mass distribution modifications contributed to the improvement of the contact force responses at various car front‐end components compared with those obtained from the lateral impacts using post‐mortem human subjects. The structural redesign of the knee enhanced the performance of the injury measurements in the simulated oblique impacts. The present study shows that the Advanced Pedestrian Legform Impactor presents improvement in the performance of previous impactors for a wide range of vehicle front‐end characteristics, including bumper height and bumper orientation.
Keywords:
bumper corner, legform impactor, lower‐limb injuries, pedestrian safety