Kinematics simulation and head injury analysis for rollovers using MADYMO

Abstract

This study demonstrates the applicability of occupant kinematics simulation and head injury analysis with MADYMO simulation for rollovers. Two real-world rollover crashes, together with an SAEJ2114 rollover test, were reconstructed, followed by a further investigation of the relationship between the roof intrusion and head injury in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)J2114 simulation. For the head injury study, the head injury criteria (HIC), head impact power (HIP) and peak virtual power (PVP) values from the hybrid III dummy model were compared with head injury tolerance limits. A finite element (FE) head model was introduced to examine the intra-cranial responses of the head during the rollovers. The von Mises stress related to the occupant injuries was exported to evaluate the head injury's possibilities. The occurrence of the head skull fracture can be predicated by HIC and PVP/HIP values. The PVP/HIP measures indicated the rank of head injuries reasonably well, and the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) injury level based on PVP score correlated well with the head injuries from the documentary evidence. The probabilities of the brain neurological injury can be indicated by von Mises stresses from the FE head simulations. In this study, the SAEJ2114 simulation result indicated that the roof intrusion velocity was the main cause of the head injury in that case. It is concluded that more real-world rollover crashes need replicating and simulating, with the analysis conducted at the level of head injury, not roof crush, to obtain causal relationships between the operative parameters.

Keywords:

• rollover
• MADYMO
• head injury
• hybrid III
• simulation
• finite element

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Dr. Guorong and TNO China for their help on the MADYMO modelling.