Title: Effects of boundary conditions in dynamic tests for pedestrian safety: a finite element simulation study

Authors: Anurag Soni, Sudipto Mukherjee, Anoop Chawla

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110016, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110016, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 110016, India

Abstract: Dynamic impact tests on post mortem human subjects (PMHSs) have been used to understand the injury mechanism and to devise countermeasures for pedestrian safety. Available experimental studies of impacts to the lower limbs simulating those encountered in automobile crashes is limited in number. However, the current European and Japanese standards have been devised from such tests. These tests have a degree of uncertainty associated with their boundary conditions due to the dynamic loading which are difficult to quantify during the test and hence usually not reported. This can lead to the erroneous results. It is concluded that the experiments should be designed to limit the effect of such dynamics based parameters or the final results should be compensated/normalised for the dynamic loading.

Keywords: dynamic PMHS tests; finite element simulation; friction; inertia; knee injuries; pedestrian-car accidents; pedestrian safety; dynamic testing; impact tests; post mortem human subjects; injury mechanisms; dynamic loading; lower limb impacts.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2008.024713

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2008 Vol.3 No.3, pp.295 - 306

Published online: 16 Apr 2009 *

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