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Current state-of-the-art vehicles implement pedestrian protection features that rely on pedestrian detection sensors and algorithms to trigger when impacting a pedestrian. During the development phase, the vehicle must “learn” to discriminate pedestrians from the rest of potential impacting objects. Part of the training data used in this process is often obtained in physical tests utilizing legform impactors whose external biofidelity is still to be evaluated. This study uses THUMS as a reference to assess the external biofidelity of the most commonly used impactors (Flex-PLI, PDI-1 and PDI-2). This biofidelity assessment was performed by finite element simulation measuring the bumper beam forces exerted by each surrogate on a sedan and a SUV. The bumper beam was divided in 50 mm sections to capture the force distribution in both vehicles. This study, unlike most of the pedestrian-related literature, examines different impact locations and velocities.

The goals of this study were to examine the dynamic force-deformation and kinematic response of a late model van subjected to an inverted drop test and to evaluate the accuracy of three-dimensional multi-point roof deformation measurements made by an optical system mounted inside the vehicle. The inverted drop test was performed using a dynamic rollover test system (Kerrigan et al., 2011 SAE) with an initial vehicle pitch of −5 degrees, a roll of +155 degrees and a vertical velocity of 2.7 m/s at initial contact. Measurements from the optical system, which was composed of two high speed imagers and a commercial optical processing software were compared to deformation measurements made by two sets of three string potentiometers. The optical and potentiometer measurements reported similar deformations: peak resultant deformations varied by 0.7 mm and 3 ms at the top of the A-pillar, and 1.7 mm and 2 ms at the top of the B-pillar.

The goal of this study is to present the methods employed and results obtained during the first six tests performed with a new dynamic rollover test system. The tests were performed to develop and refine test methodology and instrumentation methods, examine the potential for variation in test parameters, evaluate how accurately actual touchdown test parameters could be specified, and identify problems or limitations of the test fixture. Five vehicles ranging in size and inertia from a 2011 Toyota Yaris (1174 kg, 379 kg m₂) to a 2002 Ford Explorer (2408 kg, 800 kg m₂) were tested. Vehicle kinematic parameters at the instant of vehicle-to-road contact varied across the tests: roll rates of 211-268 deg/s, roll angles of 133-199 deg, pitch angles of -12 deg to 0 deg, vertical impact velocities of 1.7 to 2.7 m/s, and road velocities of 3.0-8.8 m/s.

Pedestrian impact protection has been a growing area of research over the past twenty or more years. The results from many studies have shown the importance of providing protection to vulnerable road users as a means of reducing roadway fatalities. Most of this research has focused on the vehicle fleet as a whole in datasets that are dominated by passenger cars (cars). Historically, the influence of vehicle body type on injury distribution patterns for pedestrians has not been a primary research focus. In this study we used the Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS) database of detailed pedestrian crash investigations to identify how injury patterns differ for pedestrians struck by light trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles (LTVs) from those struck by cars. AIS 2+ and 3+ injuries for each segment of vehicles were mapped back to both the body region of the pedestrian injured and the vehicle source linked to that injury in the PCDS database.