Development of Simulation Model and Pedestrian Dummy

Objective: Physical biomechanical surrogates are critical for testing the efficacy of injury-mitigating safety strategies. The interpretation of measured Hybrid III neck loads in test scenarios resulting in compressive loading modes would be aided by a further understanding of the correlation between the mechanical responses in the Hybrid III neck and the probability of injury in the human cervical spine. The anthropomorphic test device (ATD) peak upper and lower neck responses were measured during dynamic compressive loading conditions comparable to those of postmortem human subject (PMHS) experiments. The peak ATD response could then be compared to the PMHS injury outcomes.Methods: A Hybrid III 50th percentile ATD head and neck assembly was tested under conditions matching those of male PMHS tests conducted on an inverted drop track. This includes variation in impact plate orientation (4 sagittal plane and 2 frontal plane orientations), impact plate surface friction, and ATD initial head/neck orientation. This unique matched data with known injury outcomes were used to evaluate existing ATD neck injury criteria.Results: The Hybrid III ATD head and neck assembly was found to be robust and repeatable under severe loading conditions. The initial axial force response of the ATD head and neck is very comparable to PMHS experiments up to the point of PMHS cervical column buckle or material failure. An ATD lower neck peak compressive force as low as 6,290 N was associated with an unstable orthopedic cervical injury in a PMHS under equivalent impact conditions. ATD upper neck peak compressive force associated with a 5% probability of unstable cervical orthopedic injury ranged from as low as 3,708 to 3,877 N depending on the initial ATD neck angle.Conclusions: The correlation between peak ATD compressive neck response and PMHS test outcome in the current study resulted in a relationship between axial load and injury probability consistent with the current Hybrid III injury assessment reference values. The results add to the current understanding of cervical injury probability based on ATD neck compressive loading in that it is the only known study, in addition to Mertz et al. (1978), formulated directly from ATD compressive loading scenarios with known human injury outcomes.

Several studies, available in the literature, were conducted to establish the most relevant criterion for predicting the thoracic injury risk on the THOR dummy. The criteria, such as the maximum deflection or a combination of parameters including the difference between the chest right and left deflections, were all developed based on given samples of Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS). However, they were not validated against independent data and they are not always consistent with the observations from field data analysis. For this reason, 8 additional PMHS and matching THOR tests were carried out to assess the ability of the criteria to predict risks. Accident investigations showed that a reduction of the belt loads reduces the risk of rib fractures. Two configurations with different levels of force limitation were therefore chosen. A configuration representing an average European vehicle was chosen as a reference. It consists of a 3-point belt with a 3.5 kN and then 2 kN digressive limiter, combined with a 54-liter airbag. For better reproducibility and durability, the tests were performed with a pre-inflated bag and a semi-rigid seat. In this first configuration, the THOR dummy had a maximum resulting deflection of 43 mm. To differentiate the criteria, the second configuration was chosen such that it resulted in about the same deflection on the THOR dummy, but with a 5 kN belt force limitation combined with a lower pressure airbag. To reach this target of 43 mm, the pulse severity was lowered. Some criteria were higher in this second configuration, which allows them to be distinguished from the maximum deflection criterion. Four tests on four PMHS were performed in each configuration. The injury assessments showed that the total number of fractures was almost the same in both configurations, but that the number of separated fractures was greater in the 5 kN configuration. 25% of the subjects sustained AIS >3 injuries related to the number of displaced fractures in the 3.5/2 kN load limitation configuration. The result increased to 75% in the 5kN configuration. In total, 8 PMHS and the matching THOR tests were performed and used to assess the ability of the thoracic criteria to predict rib fractures in 2 types of chest loading configurations. The test results did not allow to conclude on the relevance of the criteria measured on the THOR dummy for the total number of rib fractures identified at autopsy (NFR). However, clearly different assessments for separated rib fractures (NSFR), make it possible to differentiate the criteria. The maximum resultant deflection failed to properly predict separated rib fractures while other criteria that include the left-to-right rib deflection difference did.

Preliminary female cervical spine injury risk curves from PMHS tests.

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The evaluation of pedestrian safety performance of vehicles required by regulations and new car assessment programs (NCAPs) have been conducted. However, the behavior of a pedestrian in an actual car-pedestrian accident is complex. In order to investigate injuries to the pedestrian lower body, the biofidelity of the lower limb and the pelvis of a pedestrian dummy called the POLAR II had been improved in past studies to develop a prototype of the next generation dummy called the POLAR III. The biofidelity of the thigh and the leg of the POLAR III prototype has been evaluated by means of 3-point bending. However, the inertial properties of these parts still needed to be adjusted to match those of a human. The biofidelity of the pelvis of the POLAR III prototype has been evaluated in lateral compression. Although the experiment using PMHSs (Post Mortem Human Subjects) was conducted in dynamic condition, the dummy tests were performed only in quasi-static condition. Therefore, this study aimed to improve and further validate the lower limb and the pelvis of the pedestrian dummy to enhance assessment capabilities of injuries to these body regions. The femur and tibia solid shafts of the POLAR III prototype were modified to improve durability of the instrumentation. The modified thigh and leg of the POLAR III prototype consist of double-layered plastics shaft covered by the flesh. These parts were subjected to latero-medial 3-point bending. The isolated pelvis of the POLAR III prototype was subjected to dynamic lateral compression. The force-deflection curves of the modified leg, thigh and pelvis of the POLAR III prototype (except for iliac reaction force of pubic loading) were compared with those of the PMHS test results from a past study, and the biofidelity of these components was evaluated using the parameter proposed by a past study.</div></div>

Occupant protection in rear impact involves two competing challenges. On one hand, allowing a deformation of the seat would act as an energy absorber in low severity impacts and would consequently decrease the risk of neck injuries. However, on the other hand, large deformations of the seat may increase the likelihood of occupant ejection in high severity cases. Green et al. 1987 analyzed a total of 919 accidents in Great Britain. They found that occupant ejection resulted in a risk of severe injuries and fatalities between 3.6 and 4.5 times higher than those cases where no ejection was observed. The sample included single front, side and rear impacts as well as multiple impacts and rollover. The rate of belt use in the sample was 50%. While this analysis included all forms of impact scenarios, nevertheless, it highlights the relative injury severity of occupant ejection. Extensive literature search has found no full-scale rear impact tests involving Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) conducted in a laboratory environment and resulting in ejection. This paper describes a total of 10 sled tests conducted on 3 belted PMHS using a simplified seat design composed of rigid plates assembled such that the angular and linear stiffness of the seatback (including the foam) was modeled. The initial angular position and the range of motion of the seatback, the size of the PMHS, the slack length of the seatbelt, the angular stiffness of the seatback, and the use of headrest were varied in the test matrix while the pulse was kept constant (triangular acceleration with a peak of 17 G at 30 ms and a duration of 95 ms). In the test series, the tests were not run randomly but the likelihood of occupant ejection was increased systematically until ejection occurred. PMHS seat ejection was observed only for the 95th percentile, initially positioned with a seatback angle relative to the vertical equal to 22°, a range of seatback angular motion equal to 44° and no headrest. Repeating the test under the same conditions but with the pretentionner fired did not prevent the ejection. In addition, the 50th percentile belted specimen were not observed to sustain rearward seat ejection under realistic conditions including the use of head-rest.

In the literature, injuries at the ischio or ilio pubic ramus level are reported to occur to approximately (3/4) of the occupants injured at the pelvis during side impact. Assuming that the load going through the pubis was a good indicator of the ramus stress, the pubic force was widely accepted as a protection criterion for pelvic fractures on side impact dummies. However, no data regarding the actual loads going through the pubis is currently available in the literature for Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) in dynamic conditions. The goal of this study was to determine pelvic biofidelity specifications in terms of load path, to evaluate the pertinence of the pubic force as a criterion, and to develop a pelvic injury risk curve as a function of the pubic force. For that purpose, a pubic load cell was developed for PMHS use, and 16 side impact tests were performed on 8 PMHS using boundary conditions similar to impactor tests and sled tests reported in the literature. One kind of impact was applied on one side of a subject and the other kind of impact was then applied on the other side of the same subject, at non injury severities. The ratio between the peak external force and the peak pubic force was calculated for each subject, and a mean ratio was then calculated for each of the test conditions. These ratios were finally used to calculate the pubic forces from the external pelvic forces for 90 PMHS side impact test data available in the literature. Injury risk curves as a function of the pubic force were developed from these data. Two normalized pubic force corridors from the 16 tests are presented, the first one for the impactor tests, the second one for the sled-like tests. The test results show statistically different ratios between the peak external force and the peak pubic force, for the two configurations (an average ratio of 3.3 for impactor tests and 4.6 for sled-like tests). The PMHS injury risk curves based on the external pelvic force were observed to depend on the test conditions (impactor versus sled) while the injury risk curves constructed using the calculated pubic load were not. Therefore, the pubic force is considered as a more pertinent injury criterion for pure lateral impact.

Thoracic injury is one of the vital issues in vehicle side crashes. Experiments have been done widely to study thoracic injuries using biological subjects but less virtual tests were made by using Finite Element (FE) models. This study aimed at determining the correlation of the computationally calculated thoracic injury (Number of Rib Fractures NRF) with existing thoracic injury criteria under pure side and oblique impacts. For this purpose, a previously developed thorax FE model was validated by using Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) tests in pure side and oblique impacts in this study. The rib fractures were reconstructed and compared with the fractures observed in the PMHS tests. The model was then used to simulate rib fractures in human thorax impactor tests at Principal Direction of Force (PDOF) angles of 90[Formula: see text] to 35[Formula: see text] (total of 12 impacts). Furthermore, the normalized NRF were calculated and analyzed for comparing with normalized simulated injury parameters based on various human thoracic injury criteria, including contact force criterion, thorax deflection criterion, compression criterion, upper spine acceleration criterion and Thoracic Trauma Index (TTI). It is suggested that the TTI criterion has better correlation with the NRF than the other injury criteria.

The EuroSID-2re (ES-2re) Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) commonly known as the crash test dummy is also used in the military domain to assess the risk of injury of armored vehicles occupants from lateral impact. The loading conditions range from low velocity - long duration impacts (4 m/s - 50 ms) similar to the automotive domain, to high velocity - short duration impacts (28 m/s - 3 ms) corresponding to cases where the panel deforms under an explosion. The human shoulder response to lateral impact was investigated at bounds of the loading condition spectrum previously mentioned, and also at intermediate conditions (14 m/s - 9 ms) in previous studies. The aim of the current study is to provide additional insight at the intermediate loading conditions which are not found in the literature. Eight pure lateral shoulder impact tests were performed on Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) using an 8.1 kg rigid impactor at velocities ranging from 3.3 m/s to 8.8 m/s with the duration ranging from 25 ms to 35 ms. The PMHS were instrumented with accelerometers attached to the sternum, and the upper thoracic spine (T1 vertebra). Strain gages were glued onto the right and left clavicles and ribs 2 to 6. The shoulder force was measured at the interface with the impactor and the impact was filmed by high speed cameras (5000 fps) to track the YZ displacements of the impactor, T1 vertebra, and sternum in the laboratory frame. Three shoulders out of the eight sustained AIS 2 injuries which included a clavicle fracture. The impactor forces ranged from 1200 to 4600 N. The PMHS accelerations ranged from 44 to 163 g at the sternum, and from 17 to 60 g at the T1 vertebra. The analysis of the strain gage signals revealed that the clavicle fractures occurred at the beginning of the impact and coincided with a peak force. An estimate of the acromion-to-shoulder compression (Cmax) was computed. It ranged from 0% to 15% for the non-injured shoulders, and from 19% to 28% for the injured shoulders. This new PMHS test series will be used in a future work to develop a shoulder injury criterion for the ES-2re ATD that is relevant for the whole loading conditions spectrum of the military domain.

This study aims to investigate the chest injury in terms of chest deflections and rib fracture risks based on the stress/strain analysis via a belted occupant finite element model (BOM). The BOM was established using a human body model from the Global Human Body Models Consortium (GHBMC) and the model was validated against a frontal sled test with a Post-Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS). The bio-fidelity of the belted occupant model was then evaluated according to measured data from experimental test regarding detailed torso kinematics and seatbelt forces. The BOM was then used for prediction of the chest injury via calculated injury related parameters from simulations, including stress and strain distributions on the whole ribcage, which could not be fully measured in PMHS test. A study of chest injury risk was conducted with the validated model. Special concern is given to the injuries on rib fractures and chest deflections which have been correlated to the calculated stresses and strains. The results demonstrate that the validation can sufficiently meet the reconstruction of the test and the chest injury outcomes obtained from the simulation can fit the experiment, particularly the fracture risk of the rib 6 to the rib 11 on the chest along the seatbelt path. The current study provides a reference for virtual design and improvement of the chest injury investigation to better prevent chest injuries.

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Injury assessment by using a whole-body pedestrian dummy is one of the ways to investigate pedestrian safety performance of vehicles. The authors’ group has improved the biofidelity of the lower limb and the pelvis of the mid-sized male pedestrian dummy (POLAR III) by modifying those components. This study aims to evaluate the biofidelity of the whole-body response of the modified dummy in full-scale impact tests.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The pelvis, the thigh and the leg of POLAR III have been modified in a past study by optimizing their compliance by means of the installation of plastic and rubber parts, which were used for the tests. The generic buck developed for the assessment of pedestrian dummy whole-body impact response and specified in SAE J3093 was used for this study. The buck representing the geometry of a small family car is comprised of six parts: lower bumper, bumper, grille, hood edge, hood and windshield. Tests were performed by conforming to SAE J2782 that specifies test conditions to evaluate the performance of a mid-sized male pedestrian research dummy. The buck was made to collide with the pedestrian dummy on its right side at 40 km/h. The trajectory of the head, upper spine, mid-thorax and pelvis and the time history of the head velocity were measured and compared with the requirements specified in SAE J2782. In addition, the test results were quantitatively assessed using the ranking method proposed by a past study.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">The trajectories of the landmarks along with the time histories of the head velocity generally showed a good match with the requirements specified in SAE J2782, except the trajectory of the pelvis. The biofidelity ranking parameters were rated as “excellent” or “good” using the proposed thresholds. The trajectory of the pelvis was further analyzed from the viewpoints of the structure of the dummy and the generic buck.</div></div>

Surgical simulation models have been developed using post-mortem human subjects (PMHS). These models involve the pressurization and ventilation of the PMHS to create a more realistic environment for training and the practice of surgical procedures. The overall objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of a previously developed surgical simulation model to detect soft tissue injuries during a ballistic impact to the torso. One of the main limitations of using PMHS for the assessment of soft tissue injuries in the field of injury biomechanics is the lack of physiological blood flow. To overcome this limitation, the assessment of the surgical simulation model for use in injury biomechanics applications was conducted based on data collected from behind armor blunt trauma (BABT) case studies. Documented injuries in real-world cases included anterior lung contusion, posterior lung contusion, and liver contusion. These real-world injuries were compared to those seen post-impact in the PMHS using pathological and histological techniques. Discussion of limitations and future work is presented.

The ultimate goal of this research is to reduce thoracic injuries due to traffic crashes, especially in the elderly. The specific objective is to develop and validate a full-body finite element model under 2 distinct settings that account for factors relevant for thoracic fragility of elderly: one setting representative of an average size male and one representative of an average size Japanese elderly male. A new thorax finite element model was developed from medical images of a 71-year-old average Japanese male elderly size (161cm, 60 kg) postmortem human subject (PMHS). The model was validated at component and assembled levels against original series of published test data obtained from the same elderly specimen. The model was completed with extremities and head of a model previously developed. The rib cage and the thoracic flesh materials were assigned age-dependent properties and the model geometry was scaled up to simulate a 50th percentile male. Thereafter, the model was validated against existing biomechanical data for younger and elderly subjects, including hub-to-thorax impacts and frontal impact sled PMHS test data. Finally, a parametric study was conducted with the new models to understand the effect of size and aging factors on thoracic response and risk of rib fractures. The model behaved in agreement with tabletop test experiments in intact, denuded, and eviscerated tissue conditions. In frontal impact sled conditions, the model showed good 3-dimensional head and spine kinematics, as well as rib cage multipoint deflections. When properties representative of an aging person were simulated, both the rib cage deformation and the predicted number of rib fractures increased. The effects of age factors such as rib cortical thickness, mechanical properties, and failure thresholds on the model responses were consistent with the literature. Aged and thereby softened flesh reduced load transfer between ribs; the coupling of the rib cage was reduced. Aged costal cartilage increased the severity of the diagonal belt loading sustained by the lower loaded rib cage. When age-specific parameters were implemented in a finite element (FE) model of the thorax, the rib cage kinematics and thorax injury risk increased. When the effect of size was isolated, 2 factors, in addition to rib material properties, were found to be important: flesh and costal cartilage properties. These 2 were identified to affect rib cage deformation mechanisms and may potentially increase the risk of rib fractures.

Previous vehicle-to-pedestrian impact simulations and experiments using pedestrian dummies and cadavers have shown that factors such as vehicle shape, pedestrian anthropometry and pre-impact conditions influence pedestrian kinematics and injury mechanisms. Generic pedestrian bucks, which approximate the geometrical and stiffness properties of current vehicles, would be useful in studying the influence of vehicle front-end structures on pedestrian kinematics and loading. This study explores the design of pedestrian bucks, intended to represent the basic vehicle front-end structures, consisting of five components: lower stiffener, bumper, hood leading edge and grille, hood and windshield. The deformable parts of the bucks were designed using types of currently manufactured materials, which allow fabricating the bucks in the future. The geometry of pedestrian bucks was approximated according to the contour cross-sections of two sedan vehicles used in previous pedestrian dummy and cadaver impact tests. Other cross-sectional dimensions and the stiffness of the buck components were determined by parameter identification using finite-element (FE) simulations of each sedan model. In the absence of a validated FE model of human, the FE model of the POLAR II pedestrian dummy was used to validate a mid-size sedan (MS) pedestrian buck. A good correlation of the pedestrian dummy kinematics and contact forces obtained in dummy–MS pedestrian buck with the corresponding data from dummy–MS vehicle simulation was achieved. A parametric study using the POLAR II FE model and different buck models – an MS buck and a large-size sedan (LS) buck – were run to study the influence of an automatic braking system for reducing the pedestrian injuries. The vehicle braking conditions showed reductions in the relative velocity of the head to the vehicle and increases in the time of head impact and in the wrap-around-distances (WAD) to primary head contact. The head impact velocity showed a greater sensitivity to the different buck shapes (e.g. LS buck versus MS buck) than to the braking deceleration. The buck FE models developed in this study are expected to be used in sensitivity and optimisation studies for the development of new pedestrian protection systems.

Previous studies indicate that seatbelts may require supplementary restraints to increase their effectiveness in far-side impacts. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel, far-side-specific airbag in restraining and preventing injuries in far-side impacts, and to evaluate the WorldSID's response to the presence of a far-side airbag. A series of tests with three Post-Mortem Human Subjects and the WorldSID was conducted in a vehicle-based sled environment equipped with a far-side airbag. Results of these tests were evaluated and compared to a previous test series conducted without the airbag. All of the PMHS retained the shoulder belt on the shoulder. The airbag significantly reduced PMHS injury severity and maximum lateral head excursion. While the WorldSID exhibited a similar decrease in lateral excursion, it was unable to represent PMHS thoracic deflection or injury probability, and it consistently slipped out of the shoulder belt. This indicates that the WorldSID is limited both in its ability to evaluate the effect of changes in the seatbelt system and in its ability to predict thoracic injury risk and assess airbag-related injury mitigation countermeasures.

A spacesuit architecture for the NASA Constellation Program was envisioned to support launch, entry, abort, microgravity extravehicular activity, post-landing crew operations, and, under emergency conditions, survival. This spacesuit architecture is unique in comparison to previous launch, entry, and abort suit architectures in that it used rigid mobility elements in the scye and the upper arm regions. The suit architecture also employed rigid thigh disconnect elements to allow for quick-disconnect functionality above the knee, thus allowing for the commonality of the lower portion of the suit across two suit configurations. This suit architecture was designed to interface with the Orion seat subsystem, including seat components, lateral supports, and restraints. The unique configuration of spacesuit mobility elements, combined with a need to provide occupant protection during dynamic landing events, meant that risks were identified with potential injury due to the suit characteristics described above. A test series was developed to evaluate the likelihood and consequences of the potential issues to address risk concerns. Testing included use of anthropomorphic test devices, postmortem human subjects, and representative seat/suit hardware in combination with high linear acceleration events. The ensuing treatment focuses on detailed results of the testing that has been conducted under this test series thus far.