Influence of Pedestrian Size and Vehicle Type on the Pedestrian Thoracic Dynamics Response and Injury

Abstract

To investigate the influence of the pedestrian size and vehicle type on the dynamics response and injury of pedestrian thorax by combining the merits of Finite Element (FE) method and analytical method of Multi-body (MB) system, the FE vehicle models and the MB pedestrian dummies were used to coupling simulations. Our results show that the pedestrian dummy size had a significant influence on the thoracic maximum compression; the pedestrian dummy size had no significant influence on the peak value of thoracic linear velocity, peak value of thoracic linear acceleration, VC and thoracic 3ms acceleration. For 5% pedestrian dummy, the vehicle type had a significant influence on the thoracic maximum compression; the vehicle type had no significant influence on the peak value of thoracic linear velocity, peak value of thoracic linear acceleration, VC and thoracic 3ms acceleration. For 50% pedestrian dummy, the vehicle type had a significant influence on the peak value of thoracic linear velocity and thoracic maximum compression; the vehicle type had no significant influence on the peak value of thoracic linear acceleration, VC and thoracic 3ms acceleration. The conclusions of this study can be drawn: for collision situations of pedestrian thorax in contact with the hood and the lower part of front windshield, the vehicle type and pedestrian size might affect the thoracic dynamics; but they were not significant factors that affected the severity of pedestrian thoracic injury. This finding is of vital significance for the reconstruction of vehicle-pedestrian thorax collisions and the study on the thorax injuries.