Title: Finite element study of side impact on pelvis with car door padding

Authors: Santanu Majumder, Amit Roychowdhury, Subrata Pal

Addresses: Department of Applied Mechanics, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, Howrah 711103, West Bengal, India. ' Department of Applied Mechanics, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, Howrah 711103, West Bengal, India. ' School of Bio-Science and Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032, India

Abstract: Pelvic injuries and fractures, caused by intrusion of car door structure due to car side impacts, are a serious problem worldwide. A |car door padding|, modelled with expanded polystyrene foam (EPS), is suggested in this study. This padding, formed with five layers of foams with different stiffness, is to be incorporated between the car door interior and outer body surface, around greater trochanter location of the occupant for protection from pelvic fracture (pubic rami fracture). To simplify the situation, in this finite element study the padding was fitted with a rigid impactor to hit the previously developed finite element model of the pelvis-femur-soft tissue complex with simplified representation of the whole body in occupant posture. It was observed that this padding has the capacity to reduce the risk of pubic rami fracture in case of car side impact for the occupants with the attenuation of peak impact force by 63% and a considerable reduction in peak strain by 91%. For the five-layered padding, the non-linear stiffness variations of EPS (|high to low| or |low to high| across the pad thickness) also have an effect on the peak impact force, though less pronounced and it can be concluded that |low to high| combination is preferred over |high to low| combination.

Keywords: car door padding; car side impact; expanded polystyrene foam; pelvis–femur–soft tissue complex; pubic rami fracture; pelvic injuries; pelvic fractures; vehicle safety; foam stiffness; finite element analysis; FEA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2008.025075

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2008 Vol.3 No.4, pp.338 - 350

Published online: 11 May 2009 *

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