Title: Thoracoabdominal injury analysis of a 6-year-old pedestrian finite element model in vehicle-pedestrian collisions

Authors: Wenle Lv; June Ruan; Haiyan Li; Shihai Cui; Lijuan He; Shijie Ruan

Addresses: Center for Injury Biomechanics and Vehicle Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China ' University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ' Center for Injury Biomechanics and Vehicle Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China ' Center for Injury Biomechanics and Vehicle Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China ' Center for Injury Biomechanics and Vehicle Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China ' Center for Injury Biomechanics and Vehicle Safety, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin 30022, China

Abstract: A holistic human body finite element model of a 6-year-old pedestrian was completed by integrating the skin, soft tissues and joint ligaments, based on the component models of a 6-year-old child. The complete model was verified by comparing to available cadaveric test data. Then it was used to simulate collisions of midsize car/SUV-paediatric pedestrian at different collision speeds, in order to study the effects of collision speed, and vehicle type on kinematic/biomechanical responses of paediatric chest and abdomen, and to predict the injuries of bones and internal organs according to compression/viscous criterion and strain. Simulation results showed that the number of rib fractures increased with the increase of collision speed in collision simulations of midsize car-paediatric pedestrian, but no rib fracture appeared in simulations of SUV-paediatric pedestrian impact. Maximum values of chest/abdomen/thigh impact forces, maximum deformation/VCmax of paediatric chest and abdomen, and maximum first principal strain of internal organs were proportional to collision speed. Predicted paediatric chest and abdominal injuries, obtained from the midsize car-pedestrian simulations, were found to be consistent when compression/viscous criterion and first principal strain were used as a yardstick for injury assessment. Additionally, compression/viscous criteria had some limitations on the prediction of rib fracture in SUV-pedestrian collision simulations.

Keywords: paediatric pedestrian; thoracoabdominal injury; finite element model; injury biomechanics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2017.087128

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2017 Vol.9 No.4, pp.279 - 297

Received: 18 Oct 2016
Accepted: 17 Jan 2017

Published online: 06 Oct 2017 *

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