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Studies show that the pedestrian population at high risk of injury consists of both young children and adults. The goal of this study is to gain understanding in the mechanisms that lead to injuries for children and adults. Multi-body pedestrian human models of two specific anthropometries, a 6year-old child and a 50th percentile adult male, are applied. A vehicle model is developed that consists of a detailed rigid finite element mesh, validated stiffness regions, stiff structures underlying the hood and a suspension model. Simulations are performed in a test matrix where anthropometry, impact speed and impact location are variables. Bumper impact occurs with the tibia of the 50th percentile adult male and with the thigh of the 6-year-old child. The head of a 50th percentile male impacts the lower windshield, while the 6-year-old child's head impacts the front part of the hood.

This research investigates the variation of pedestrian stance in pedestrian-automobile impact using a validated multi-body vehicle and human model. Detailed vehicle models of a small family car and a sport utility vehicle (SUV) are developed and validated for impact with a 50th percentile human male anthropometric ellipsoid model, and different pedestrian stances (struck limb forward, feet together, and struck limb backward) are investigated. The models calculate the physical trajectory of the multi-body models including head and torso accelerations, as well as pelvic force loads. This study shows that lower limb orientation during a pedestrian-automobile impact plays a dominant role in upper body kinematics of the pedestrian. Specifically, stance has a substantial effect on the subsequent impacts of the head and thorax with the vehicle. The variation in stance can change the severity of an injury incurred during an impact by changing the impact region.

Pedestrian finite element models (PFEM) are used to investigate and predict the injury outcomes from vehicle-pedestrian impact. As postmortem human surrogates (PMHS) differ in anthropometry across subjects, it is believed that the biofidelity of PFEM cannot be properly evaluated by comparing a generic anthropometry model against the specific PMHS test data. Global geometric personalization can scale the PFEM geometry to match the height and weight of a specific PMHS, while local geometric personalization via morphing can modify the PFEM geometry to match specific PMHS anatomy. The goal of the current study was to evaluate the benefit of morphed PFEM compared to globally-scaled and generic PFEM by comparing the kinematics against PMHS test results. The AM50 THUMS PFEM (v4.01) was used as a baseline for anthropometry, and personalized PFEM were created to the anthropometric specifications of two obese PMHS used in a previous pedestrian impact study using a mid-size sedan.

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.

The objective of the study was to analyze independently the contribution of pre-impact spine posture on impact response by subjecting a finite element human body model (HBM) to whole-body, lateral impacts. Seven postured models were created from the original HBM: one matching the standard driving posture and six matching pre-impact posture measured for each of six subjects tested in previously published experiments. The same measurements as those obtained during the experiments were calculated from the simulations, and biofidelity metrics based on signals correlation were established to compare the response of HBM to that of the cadavers. HBM responses showed good correlation with the subject response for the reaction forces, the rib strain (correlation score=0.8) and the overall kinematics. The pre-impact posture was found to greatly alter the reaction forces, deflections and the strain time histories mainly in terms of time delay.

The size and shape of the acetabulum and of the femoral head influence the injury tolerance of the hip joint. The aim of this study is to quantify changes in acetabular cup geometry that occur with age, gender, height, and weight. Anonymized computed tomography (CT) scans of 1,150 individuals 16+ years of age, both with and without hip trauma, were used to describe the acetabular rim with 100 equally spaced points. Bilateral measurements were taken on uninjured patients, while only the uninjured side was valuated in those with hip trauma. Multinomial logistic regression found that after controlling for age, height, weight, and gender, each 1 degree decrease in acetabular anteversion angle (AAA) corresponded to an 8 percent increase in fracture likelihood (p≺0.001).

Previous research has suggested that the pediatric ATD spine, developed from scaling the adult ATD spine, may not adequately represent a child's spine and thus may lead to important differences in the ATD head trajectory relative to a human. To gain further insight into this issue, the objectives of this study were, through non-injurious frontal sled tests on human volunteers, to 1) quantify the kinematic responses of the restrained child's head and spine and 2) compare pediatric kinematic responses to those of the adult. Low-speed frontal sled tests were conducted using male human volunteers (20 subjects: 6-14 years old, 10 subjects: 18-40 years old), in which the safety envelope was defined from an amusement park bumper-car impact.