Development and Validation of a Vehicle Front Profile Finite Element Model to Evaluate Pedestrian Impacts

In 2021, there were nearly 7500 pedestrians killed in traffic crashes in the U.S., the highest since 1981. Since the year 2000, Europe and Japan have adopted pedestrian crash protection programs for vehicles and have seen a decline in pedestrian fatalities; the U.S. has not yet adopted pedestrian crash protection and has seen an increase in pedestrian fatalities in that same time. European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) outlines a detailed procedure for evaluations of new vehicles for pedestrian safety through headform, upper legform, and lower legform tests. Euro NCAP also uses generic finite element (FE) front-end vehicle models, representative of different vehicle classes, for safety ratings and analysis of pedestrian kinematics. While these models are useful, they are not always applicable to the U.S., because they represent the European fleet and do not account for variability in stiffness across the hood and bumper. There are no publicly available FE models representative of a U.S. pickup truck/large SUV that are validated from pedestrian injury data. This study aimed to develop a vehicle front profile FE model, representative of a large U.S. vehicle, and validate the model from pedestrian component test data.

Analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data showed that pickup trucks pose the highest risk factor to pedestrians in the U.S. As a result, an FE model was developed based on the scanned geometry of a 2023 Ford F-150. Material properties from the Euro SUV model were applied to the developed FE model as a baseline. Pedestrian headform, upper legform, and lower legform FE simulations were performed on the model. Model data was validated against experimental test corridors of a Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Tahoe from literature. Model parameters such as thickness, stiffness, and damping were tuned for increased correlation to the experimental test corridors. Correlation and Analysis (CORA) scores improved for all model outputs. A larger experiment sample size would improve model validation. Future studies will be performed using Pedestrian Human body models with the FE vehicle to analyze pedestrian kinematics.

Year	Entry
2005	Otte D, Haasper C. Technical parameters and mechanisms for the injury risk of the knee joint of vulnerable road users impacted by cars in road traffic accidents. In: Proceedings of the 2005 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 21-23, 2005; Prague, Czech Republic.281-297.
2009	Kerrigan J, Arregui C, Crandall J. Pedestrian head impact dynamics: comparison of dummy and PMHS in small sedan and large SUV impacts. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2012	Mueller BC, Nolan JM, Zuby DS, Rizzo AG. Pedestrian injury patterns in the United States and relevance to GTR. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 12-14, 2012; Dublin, Ireland.690-702.
2004	Kerrigan JR, Kam CY, Drinkwater DC, Murphy DB, Arregui C, Millington S, Teresinski G, Bolton JR, Crandall JR, Deng B, Wang JT, Kerkeling C, Hahn W. Full scale pedestrian impact testing with PMHS: a pilot study. In: Proceedings of the 32nd International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research. 2004.147-175.
2009	Inomata Y, Iwai N, Maeda Y, Kobayashi S, Okuyama H, Takahashi N. Development of the pop-up engine hood for pedestrian head protection. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2008	Subit D, Kerrigan J, Crandall J, Fukuyama K, Yamazaki K, Kamiji K, Yasuki T. Pedestrian-vehicle interaction: kinematics and injury analysis of four full scale tests. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 17-19, 2008; Bern, Switzerland.275-294.
2009	Gehre C, Gades H, Wernicke P. Objective rating of signals using test and simulation responses. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
2007	Untaroiu CD, Shin J, Crandall JR. A design optimization approach of vehicle hood for pedestrian protection. Int J Crashworthiness. 2007;12(6):581-589.
2007	Martinez L, Guerra LJ, Ferichola G, Garcia A, Yang J. Stiffness corridors of the European fleet for pedestrian simulations. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
2017	Klug C, Feist F, Raffler M, Sinz W, Petit P, Ellway J, van Ratingen M. Development of a procedure to compare kinematics of human body models for pedestrian simulations. In: Proceedings of the 2017 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 13-15, 2017; Antwerp, Belgium.508-530.
2011	Hamacher M, Eckstein L, Kühn M, Hummel T. Assessment of active and passive technical measures for pedestrian protection at the vehicle front. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.
2007	Kerrigan JR, Crandall JR, Deng B. Pedestrian kinematic response to mid-sized vehicle impact. Int J Veh Saf. 2007;2(3):221-240.
2005	Kerrigan JR, Murphy DB, Drinkwater DC, Kam CY, Bose D, Crandall JR. Kinematic corridors for PMHS tested in full-scale pedestrian impact tests. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 6-9, 2005; Washington, DC.
2008	Martínez L, Compigne S, Guerra LJ. Influence of vehicle shape and stiffness on the pedestrian lower extremity injuries: review of current pedestrian lower leg test procedure. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 17-19, 2008; Bern, Switzerland.243-257.
2008	Schroeder G, Fukuyama K, Yamazaki K, Kamiji K, Yasuki T. Injury mechanism of pedestrians impact test with a sport-utility vehicle and mini-van. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 17-19, 2008; Bern, Switzerland.259-273.

Year

Entry

2005

Otte D, Haasper C. Technical parameters and mechanisms for the injury risk of the knee joint of vulnerable road users impacted by cars in road traffic accidents. In: Proceedings of the 2005 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 21-23, 2005; Prague, Czech Republic.281-297.

2009

Kerrigan J, Arregui C, Crandall J. Pedestrian head impact dynamics: comparison of dummy and PMHS in small sedan and large SUV impacts. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.

2012

Mueller BC, Nolan JM, Zuby DS, Rizzo AG. Pedestrian injury patterns in the United States and relevance to GTR. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 12-14, 2012; Dublin, Ireland.690-702.

2004

Kerrigan JR, Kam CY, Drinkwater DC, Murphy DB, Arregui C, Millington S, Teresinski G, Bolton JR, Crandall JR, Deng B, Wang JT, Kerkeling C, Hahn W. Full scale pedestrian impact testing with PMHS: a pilot study. In: Proceedings of the 32nd International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research. 2004.147-175.

2009

Inomata Y, Iwai N, Maeda Y, Kobayashi S, Okuyama H, Takahashi N. Development of the pop-up engine hood for pedestrian head protection. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.