Bilateral knee impacts were conducted on Hybrid III and THOR 5th percentile female anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs), and the results were compared to previously reported female PMHS data. Each ATD was impacted at velocities of 2.5, 3.5, and 4.9 m/s. Knee-Thigh-Hip (KTH) loading data, obtained either via direct measurement or through exercising a one-dimensional Lumped Parameter Model (LPM), was analysed for differences in loading characteristics including the maximum force, time to maximum force, loading rate, and loading duration. The ATDs displayed higher loading rates and maximum forces, and the lowest loading duration and time to peak force for each point along KTH compared to the PMHS. The force transfer from the knee to the femur was 79.4 ± 2.4% for the Hybrid III 5th female, 82.7 ± 0.4% for the THOR-05F, and 70.6 ± 1.7% for the PMHS. The force transfer from the knee to the hip was 60.6 ± 0.4% for the Hybrid III 5th female, 41.4 ± 0.4% for the THOR-05F, and 57.0 ± 3.0% for the PMHS. Contextualizing the results with data from epidemiology studies suggests that while maximum force may be a useful parameter in analysing KTH force transfer, the force transfer behaviour of the PMHS and ATDs were not uncharacteristic from what was estimated via simple scaling techniques using mid-size male subjects. Thus, the authors explored additional factors which may contribute to the injury patterns in the field data but were not explored in the current study and should be addressed in future work.
Keywords:
Female; Frontal Impacts; Knee-Thigh-Hip; Lumped-Parameter Modelling; ATDs