Incidences of various passenger vehicle front-end designs on pedestrian lower limb injuries

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the influence of various passenger vehicle front-end designs on knee ligaments and tibia injuries of pedestrian lower limbs by finite element simulations. Using a detailed finite element model of the lower limb, this work was focused on tibia fractures and knee ligament ruptures of lower limbs during vehicle–pedestrian impacts. The influences of vehicle front-end structures on the risk of these two injury occurrences were investigated using super mini, small family car, executive car, and multipurpose vehicle passenger vehicle types. The overall results show that the bumper beam design play an important role in inducing pedestrian lower limb injuries. Its height to the road surface, width in the height direction, and the deformable depth between it and the bumper fascia should be all considered in the vehicle design to protect pedestrian lower limbs.

Keywords:

• finite element model
• pedestrian
• lower limb
• knee ligaments
• tibia

We would like to acknowledge all partners in the ASP (Amélioration de la Sécurité des Piétons) project (Faurecia, Plastic Omnium, Altair, Université de Strasbourg, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Politecnico di Torino) for their contributions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank gratefully to the support of ASP project and National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51405150].