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Fatalities resulting from vehicle rollover events account for over one-third of all U.S. motor vehicle occupant fatalities. While a great deal of research has been directed towards the rollover problem, few studies have attempted to determine the sensitivity of occupant injury risk to variations in the vehicle (roof strength), crash (kinematic conditions at roof-to-ground contact), and occupant (anthropometry, position and posture) parameters that define the conditions of the crash. A two-part computational study was developed to examine the sensitivity of injury risk to changes in these parameters. The first part of this study, the Crash Parameter Sensitivity Study (CPSS), demonstrated the influence of parameters describing the vehicle and the crash on vehicle response using LS-DYNA finite element (FE) simulations.

A finite element human model has been developed to simulate occupant behavior and to estimate injuries in real-world car crashes. The model represents an average adult male of the US population in a driving posture. Physical geometry, mechanical characteristics and joint structures were replicated as precise as possible. The total number of nodes and materials is around 67,000 and 1,000 respectively. Each part of the model was not only validated against human test data in the literature but also for realistic loading conditions. Additional tests were newly conducted to reproduce realistic loading to human subjects. A data set obtained in human volunteer tests was used for validating the neck part. The head-neck kinematics and responses in low-speed rear impacts were compared between the measured and calculated results. The validity of the lower extremity part was examined by comparing the tibia force in a foot impact between the test data and simulation results.

Some rollover testing methodologies require specification of vehicle kinematic parameters including travel speed, vertical velocity, roll rate, and pitch angle, etc. at the initiation of vehicle to ground contact, which have been referred to as touchdown conditions. The complexity of the vehicle, as well as environmental and driving input characteristics make prediction of realistic touchdown conditions for rollover crashes, and moreover, identification of parameter sensitivities of these characteristics, is difficult and expensive without simulation tools. The goal of this study was to study the sensitivity of driver input on touchdown parameters and the risk of rollover in cases of steering-induced soil-tripped rollovers, which are the most prevalent type of rollover crashes. Knowing the range and variation of touchdown parameters and their sensitivities would help in picking realistic parameters for simulating controlled rollover tests.

Material and structural properties of human tissues under impact loading are needed for the development of physical and computational models used in pedestrian and vehicle occupant protection. Obtaining these global properties directly from the data of biomechanical tests is a challenging task due to nonlinearities of tissue-test setup systems. The objective of this study was to develop subject-specific finite element (FE) techniques for material identification of human tissues using Successive Response Surface Methodology. As example, the test data of a human femur in three-point bending is used to identify parameters of cortical bone. Good global and local predictions of the optimized FE model demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of this new material identification approach.

The objective of the current study was to characterize the whole-body kinematic response of restrained PMHS in controlled laboratory rollover tests. A dynamic rollover test system (DRoTS) and a parametric vehicle buck were used to conduct 36 rollover tests on four adult male PMHS with varied test conditions to study occupant kinematics during the rollover event. The DRoTS was used to drop/catch and rotate the test buck, which replicated the occupant compartment of a typical mid-sized SUV, around its center of gravity without roof-to-ground contact. The studied test conditions included a quasi-static inversion (4 tests), an inverted drop and catch that produced a 3 g vertical deceleration (4 tests), a pure dynamic roll at 360 degrees/second (11 tests), and a roll with a superimposed drop and catch produced vertical deceleration (17 tests). Each PMHS was restrained with a three-point belt and was tested in both leading-side and trailing-side front-row seating positions.

This paper discusses struck-side occupant thoracic response to side-impact loading and the requirements of a sled system capable of reproducing the relevant motions of a laterally impacted vehicle. A simplified viscoelastic representation of a thorax is used to evaluate the effect of the door velocity-time profile on injury criteria and on the internal stress state of the thorax. Simulations using a prescribed door velocity-time profile (punch impact) are contrasted against simulations using a constant-velocity impact (Heidelberg-type impact). It is found that the stress distribution and magnitude within the thorax, in addition to the maximum thorax compression and viscous response, depend not only on the door-occupant closing velocity, but also on the shape of the door velocity-time profile throughout the time of contact with the occupant. A sled system capable of properly reproducing side-impact door and seat motion is described.