Influence of vehicle shape and stiffness on the pedestrian lower extremity injuries: review of current pedestrian lower leg test procedure

Abstract

This study aims at evaluating the current pedestrian lower leg test procedure with respect to the human response in a pedestrian accident. The test procedure is examined for a variety of representative cars of the European fleet. The investigation is purely based on numerical simulations carried out using the regulatory lower leg impactor, as described in the Directive 2004/90/EC, and compared to simulations where the impactor is replaced by the human FE model THUMS (Total HUman Model for Safety). THUMS was developed in collaboration by Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota Central R&D Labs.. It has been extensively validated under pedestrian impact conditions and its response has been proven to be biofidelic. Therefore, THUMS results are considered as reference for the analysis of the lower leg impactor simulation results. THUMS and impactor responses are compared looking at: - Their kinematics, accelerations, velocities and deflections, - Their injury prediction, - And finally, their contact forces with the vehicle structures. This work was carried out in the frame of the sub-project Nº3 on “Pedestrians and Cyclist accidents” of the European funded project “Advanced PROtection SYStem”, APROSYS.