Finite element study of side impact on pelvis with car door padding
by Santanu Majumder, Amit Roychowdhury, Subrata Pal
International Journal of Vehicle Safety (IJVS), Vol. 3, No. 4, 2008

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.

Online publication date: Mon, 11-May-2009

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Vehicle Safety (IJVS):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com