Title: A study on the potential risk of traumatic brain injury due to ground impact in a vehicle-pedestrian collision using full-scale finite element models

Authors: Atsutaka Tamura, Stefan Duma

Addresses: Fundamental Research Department, Toyota Research Institute of North America, Ann Arbor, MI 48105, USA. ' Center for Injury Biomechanics, Virginia Tech–Wake Forest University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

Abstract: In this study, a validated pedestrian finite element model with a detailed brain was utilised to investigate the potential risk of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in relation to ground impact in a vehicle-pedestrian collision. We found that pre-impact transverse pedestrian speed affects post-impact kinematics and subsequent kinetics, which are considerably unpredictable due to the intrinsic complexity of pedestrian crash, and ground impact is likely to cause serious TBIs for struck pedestrians. This finding suggests effective countermeasures for ground impact should be taken into account to reduce TBIs involving vehicle with a higher profile even at the low impact speed levels.

Keywords: vehicle-pedestrian collisions; TBI; traumatic brain injury; ground impact; SUV; sport utility vehicles; vehicle safety; pedestrians; finite element method; FEM; modelling; pre-impact transverse speed; post-impact kinematics; kinetics; pedestrian accidents.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2011.040131

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2011 Vol.5 No.2, pp.117 - 136

Received: 29 May 2010
Accepted: 15 Dec 2010
Published online: 15 Apr 2015 *

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