Title: Response of tonic lower limb FE model in various real life car-pedestrian impact configurations: a parametric study for standing posture

Authors: Anurag Soni, Anoop Chawla, Sudipto Mukherjee, Rajesh Malhotra

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. ' Department of Orthopaedics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi 110016, India

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of muscle contraction on lower extremity injuries in car-pedestrian lateral impacts. Three variables, viz. height of impact, pedestrian offset with respect to car centre and impact speed, are considered. Full-scale car-pedestrian FE simulations have been performed using the full body pedestrian model with active lower extremities (PMALE) and front structures of a car model. Two pre-impact conditions of a symmetrically standing pedestrian, representing a cadaver and an unaware pedestrian, have been simulated. It is concluded that (1) with muscle contraction risk of ligament failure decreases whereas risk of bone fracture increases; (2) ligament and bone strains are dependent on the impact location; (3) chances of ligament injuries are higher when the impact occurs near the outer corner of the car; (4) risk of bone fracture increases with speed and (5) bone fracture reduces the risk of ligament failure.

Keywords: car-pedestrian impact; dynamic simulation; finite element method; FEM; modelling; knee injury; muscle contraction; lower extremity injuries; PMALE; standing posture; pedestrian accidents; lateral impact; ligament failure; bone fracture; vehicle safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2009.026971

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2009 Vol.4 No.1, pp.14 - 28

Published online: 11 Jul 2009 *

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