Influence of occupant restraint system on traumatic brain injuries

Abstract

The influence of occupant restraint system on traumatic brain injuries in a front crash was computationally investigated using multibody and finite element methods in a loosely-coupled manner. A multibody dynamic analysis that includes a crash dummy and vehicle model with/without restraint system was performed. Based on the kinematic characteristics of the dummy's head obtained from the multibody dynamic analysis, two different finite element analyses with a human head model were performed. The first approach was simply to drive the finite element head model with an initial velocity and deceleration calculated from the multibody analysis. The second approach was to reconstruct the complicated crash scenario using simple head impact to a stationary wall, in which the head yielded almost identical kinematic characteristics obtained from the multibody analysis. Through the two approaches, strain-, pressure-, and motion-based brain injury metrics were assessed for three different settings of occupant restraint system.

Keywords:

• traumatic brain injury
• occupant restraint system
• multibody dynamics
• finite element analysis
• parameter identification

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the support from Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham for the use of its high-performance computing facility. The author also acknowledges the support from Musculoskeletal Mechanics Laboratory in Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the expertise of Dr. Alan Eberhardt and Mr. Jason Keeley for the MADYMO modeling.

Notes

∗HIC indicates head injury criterion; NR, no airbag without seatbelt; UB, airbag without seatbelt; and BT, airbag with seatbelt.

∗Abbreviations are explained in the first footnote to Table 1.