Title: The effect of lower limb muscle contractions on the impact acceleration behaviour of medial knee in low-speed pedestrian impact

Authors: Junghwa Hong, Sung-Ki Min, Gwang-Mun Eom, Byung-Kyu Park, Soo-Won Chae, Dong-Suk Kim

Addresses: Biomechatronics Laboratory, Room #405, Department of Control and Instrumentation Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Korea University, 208 Seochang-Ri, Jochiwon-Eup, Youngi-Gun, Chungnam, 339-700, Republic of Korea. ' Biomechatronics Laboratory, Room #405, Department of Control and Instrumentation Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Korea University, 208 Seochang-Ri, Jochiwon-Eup, Youngi-Gun, Chungnam, 339-700, Republic of Korea. ' School of Biomedical Engineering, Konkuk University, 322 Danwol-Dong, Choonju, Choonbuk 380-701, Republic of Korea. ' Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Korea University, Guro Hospital, Guro 2-Dong, Guro, Seoul 152-703, Republic of Korea. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Sungbuk, Anam-Dong, Seoul 136-713, Republic of Korea. ' Vehicle Engineering Centre, GMDAT, 199-1, Cheongcheon-Dong, Bupyeong, Incheon 403-714, Republic of Korea

Abstract: For accurate analysis in low-speed collisions, roles of muscle in the low extremities are included in a finite element (FE) human model. The impact accelerations were estimated for vehicle-pedestrian collisions with and without muscle activations under 10 km/hour. The predicted acceleration at the medial knee was verified by the actual tests performed at 2.88 km/hour. Then, experiments were performed using a sled to obtain muscle activations, and impact accelerations of the subjects. More analyses were performed using the FE human model at 5 and 10 km/hour to understand effects of muscle activations on impact accelerations. At the lowest impact speed, the reduction of acceleration was 20% when the result with muscle activations was compared to that without muscle activations. The reduction was decreased to 12% at 5 km/hour. At 10 km/hour, the reduction was insignificant but existed to as much as 3%. Therefore, muscle activations in the lower limbs are important when the impact velocity is lower than 10 km/hour.

Keywords: digital human modelling; pedestrian accidents; low-speed impact; myoelectric signal; MES; muscle contraction; impact acceleration; medial knee; lower limbs; low-speed collisions; finite element method; FEM; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2009.027962

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2009 Vol.51 No.3/4, pp.359 - 373

Published online: 22 Aug 2009 *

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