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The accidentological studies dealing with automotive side collisions suggest that the pelvis is very vulnerable. Car manufacturers are more and more concerned with the protection of the occupant in lateral impact, but there is a lack of knowledge of the behavior of the pelvic bony structure and of its biomechanical tolerances. This knowledge however is essential in order to optimize protection devices and car structures with regard to the security of the occupants. The main goal of this study is thus two-fold: First, a field accident analysis was carried out in order to document the lesions and the injury mechanisms encountered in lateral impact. The accident database of the Laboratory of Accidentology and Biomechanics (LAB) was used and a sample of 219 injured occupants sustaining 381 injuries in lateral collision enables to evaluate the most frequent injuries and their location. Those injuries were also analyzed with regard to the car characteristics.

The present study describes the development of a refined finite element model of the human pelvis. The objectives of this research work were to: Statistically study the human pelvis geometry, and develop a parameterized model. Mechanically validate the model with regard to the available in-house experimental data. Model the injury mechanisms observed in the experimental studies. The significant dimensions of the pelvis were identified by statistical analysis of the pelvis geometry based on the Reynolds et al. data [1]. Those dimensions were used to classify the in-house tested pelves. An interpolation technique (Kriging [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8]) was then used in order to distort a reference mesh and adapt its geometry to the measured geometry of the tested pelvis. The mechanical validation of the model was carried out by comparing numerical and experimental results, and the influence of the geometrical variations on the behavior of the pelvis was thus assessed.

The goal of this study was to develop and validate a finite element (FE) model of the Polar-II pedestrian dummy. An upper body model consisting of the head, neck, shoulder, thorax, and abdomen was coupled with a previously validated model of the lower limb The viscoelastic material properties of the dummy components were determined from dynamic compression tests of shoulder urethane, shoulder rubber and abdominal foam. For validation of the entire upper body, the model was compared with NHTSA response requirements for their advanced frontal dummy (Thor) including head and neck pendulum tests as well as ribcage and abdominal impact tests. In addition, the Polar-II full body FE model was subjected to simulated vehicle-pedestrian impacts that recreated published experiments. Simulated head and pelvis accelerations as well as upper body trajectories reasonably reproduced the experiment.

This study evaluated the response of restrained post-mortem human subjects (PMHS) in 40 km/h frontal sled tests. Eight male PMHS were restrained on a rigid planar seat by a custom 3-point shoulder and lap belt. A video motion tracking system measured three-dimensional trajectories of multiple skeletal sites on the torso allowing quantification of ribcage deformation. Anterior and superior displacement of the lower ribcage may have contributed to sternal fractures occurring early in the event, at displacement levels below those typically considered injurious, suggesting that fracture risk is not fully described by traditional definitions of chest deformation. The methodology presented here produced novel kinematic data that will be useful in developing biofidelic human models.

The human body undergoes a variety of changes as it ages through adulthood. These include both morphological (structural) changes (e.g., increased thoracic kyphosis) and material changes (e.g., osteoporosis). The purpose of this study is to evaluate structural changes that occur in the aging bony thorax and to assess the importance of these changes relative to the well-established material changes. The study involved two primary components. First, full-thorax computed tomography (CT) scans of 161 patients, age 18 to 89 years, were analyzed to quantify the angle of the ribs in the sagittal plane. A significant association between the angle of the ribs and age was identified, with the ribs becoming more perpendicular to the spine as age increased (0.08 degrees/year, p=0.012). Next, a finite element model of the thorax was used to evaluate the importance of this rib angle change relative to other factors associated with aging.

This study focuses on the phenomenon of lap belt slip on the iliac spines of the pelvis, commonly named “submarining ”. The first objective was to compare the interaction between the pelvis and the lap belt for both dummies and Post Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS). The second objective was to identify parameters influencing the lap belt hooking by the pelvis. For that purpose, a hydraulic test device was developed in order to impose the tension and kinematics of the lap belt such that they mimic what occurs in frontal car crashes. The pelvis was firmly fixed on the frame of this sub-system test-rig, while the belt anchorages were mobile. Fourteen tests on four Post-Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) and fifteen tests on the THOR NT, Hybrid III 50th and Hybrid III 95th percentile dummies were carried out. The belt tension was kept constant while a dynamic rotation was imposed on the belt anchorages.

This study aimed at determining the influence of impact conditions and occupant mechanical properties on pelvic response in side impact. First, a fracturable pelvis model was developed and validated against dynamic tests on isolated pelvic bones and on whole cadavers. By coupling a fixed cortical bone section thickness within a single subject's pelvis and across the population with a parametric material law for the pelvic bone, this model reproduced the pelvic response and tolerance variation among individuals. Three material laws were also identified to represent fragile, medium and strong pelvic bones for the 50th percentile male. With this model, the influence of impact mass, velocity and surface shape on pelvic response was examined. Results indicated that the shape difference between four main impactors reported in the literature has little effect on the pelvic response.

Traumatic aortic rupture (TAR) accounts for a significant mortality in automobile crashes. A numerical method by means of a mesh-based code coupling is employed to elucidate the injury mechanism of TAR. The aorta is modeled as a single-layered thick wall composed of two families of collagen fibers using an anisotropic strain energy function with consideration of viscoelasticity. A set of constitutive parameters is identified from experimental data of the human aorta, providing strict local convexity. An in vitro aorta model reconstructed from the Visible Human dataset is applied to the pulsatile blood flow to establish the references of mechanical quantities for physiological conditions. A series of simulations is performed using the parameterized impact pulses obtained from frontal sled tests.

The objective of the current study was to provide a comprehensive characterization of human biomechanical response to whole-body, lateral impact. Three approximately 50th-percentile adult male PMHS were subjected to right-side pure lateral impacts at 4.3 ± 0.1 m/s using a rigid wall mounted to a rail-mounted sled. Each subject was positioned on a rigid seat and held stationary by a system of tethers until immediately prior to being impacted by the moving wall with 100 mm pelvic offset. Displacement data were obtained using an optoelectronic stereophotogrammetric system that was used to track the 3D motions of the impacting wall sled; seat sled, and reflective targets secured to the head, spine, extremities, ribcage, and shoulder complex of each subject. Kinematic data were also recorded using 3-axis accelerometer cubes secured to the head, pelvis, and spine at the levels of T1, T6, T11, and L3. Chest deformation in the transverse plane was recorded using a single chestband.