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Carotid artery injury due to motor vehicle crash has been attributed to direct impact to the neck and stretching of the artery. This study examines the response of a finite element model of the neck and carotid arteries given a farside vehicle impact. This regional carotid artery model was developed using existing material properties and based on a spine model developed by NHTSA. The finite element model was subjected to loading conditions derived from farside PMHS tests conducted at Medical College of Wisconsin. The PMHS tests represented four inboard belt loading conditions of the neck. The belts were located high on the neck, for maximal compression of the vessel, or low on the neck, for maximal excursion of the head. There was a low speed and a high speed test for each of the belt configurations. These boundary conditions were implemented in the model and the response of the carotid was quantified using strain measurements.

Computational modeling of the human body is increasingly used to evaluate countermeasure performance during simulated vehicle crashes. Various injury criteria can be calculated from such models and these can either be correlative (HIC, BrIC, etc.) or based on local deformation and loading (strain-based rib fracture, organ damage, etc.). In this study, we present a method based on local deformation to extract failed rib region data. The GHMBC M50-O model was used in a Frontal-NCAP severity sled simulation. Failed Rib Regions (FRRs) in the M50-O model are handled through element deletion once the element surpasses 1.8% effective strain. The algorithm central to the methodology presented extracts FRR data and requires 4-element connectivity to register a failure. Furthermore, the FRRs are localized to anatomical sections (Lateral, Anterior, and Posterior), rib level (1,2,3 etc.) and element strain data is recorded.

This study was to investigate kinematics and responses of side-facing seated occupants in frontal crashes of an automated minivan using Global Human Body Models Consortium (GHBMC) simplified occupant models (50th%ile male and 5th%ile female), and to develop new restraint concepts to protect the occupants. The latest GHBMC M50-OS and F05-OS models (version 2.2) were further validated with Postmortem Human Subject (PMHS) side sled tests [7]. Robustness and biofidelity of the GHBMC human models, especially for the pelvis region, were enhanced. Using the update M50-OS and F05-OS models, we evaluated the body kinematics and injury measures of the side-facing seated occupants in frontal crashes of a minivan at severities ranging from 24 kph (15 mph) to 56 kph (35 mph). Three restraint configurations were studied: 1) no restraint; 2) lap belt only; 3) lap and head/torso restraints.