Effects of vehicle bumper height and impact velocity on type of lower extremity injury in vehicle-pedestrian accidents

In nonfatal passenger vehicle-pedestrian accidents, the lower extremities are the most commonly injured body parts. The European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee Working Group 17 (EEVC/WG17) pedestrian subsystem test method using a legform impactor has been developed mainly for evaluation of aggressiveness of the front bumper of passenger vehicles. However, in recent years the number of sports utility vehicles (SUV) with a high bumper has been rapidly increasing. Since the bumper height is different between a passenger vehicle and an SUV, the type of lower extremity injury may be different. The type of lower extremity injury caused by this different bumper height should be clarified, because the test method and vehicle safety countermeasure must take into account a certain type of injury. Furthermore, the effect of vehicle impact velocity on the type of lower extremity injury in vehicle-pedestrian accidents has not been investigated so far. Therefore, the objective of this study is to clarify the effect of vehicle bumper height and vehicle impact velocity on the type of lower extremity injury in vehicle-pedestrian accidents. The Pedestrian Crash Data Study (PCDS), an in-depth accident database in the USA, was used for the current analyses. The results indicate that the type of injury, i.e., to the tibia and knee ligament, could become an injury to the femur with an increase in bumper height. Furthermore, the main injury at an impact velocity of around 20-30km/h is to the knee ligament. On the other hand, the main injury at an impact velocity of around 40km/h is a fracture of the lower extremities.     

Development process of new bumper beam for passenger car: A review

Bumper beam absorbs the accidental kinetic energy by deflection in low-speed impact and by deformation in high-speed impact. The safety regulations “low-, and high-speed, and pedestrian impacts” along with new environmental restrictions “end-of-life vehicles” increased the complexity level of bumper system design. The new bumper design must be flexible enough to reduce the passenger and occupant injury and stay intact in low-speed impact besides being stiff enough to dissipate the kinetic energy in high-speed impact. The reinforcement beam plays a vital role in safety and it must be validated through finite-element analysis (FEA) and experimental tests before mass production. The careful design and analysis of bumper beam effective parameters can optimize the strength, reduce the weight, and increase the possibility of utilizing biodegradable and recyclable materials to reduce the environmental pollution. Developing the correct design and analysis procedures prevents design re-modification. On the other hand, analysis of the most effective parameters conducive to high bumper beam strength increases the efficiency of product development. Cross section, longitudinal curvature, fixing method, rib thickness, and strength are some of the significant design parameters in bumper beam production. This study critically reviews the related literature on bumper design to come up with the optimal bumper beam design process. It particularly focuses on the effective parameters in the design of bumper beam and their most suitable values or ranges of values. The results can help designers and researchers in performing functional analysis of the bumper beam determinant variables.     

Injury tolerance of tibia for the car–pedestrian impact

Lower limbs are normally the first contacted body region during car–pedestrian accidents, and easily suffer serious injuries. The previous tibia bending tolerances for pedestrian safety were mainly developed from three-point bending tests on tibia mid-shaft. The tibia tolerances of other locations are still not investigated enough. In addition, tibia loading condition under the car–pedestrian impact should be explored to compare with the three-point bending. This work aims to investigate the injury tolerance of tibia fracture with combined experimental data and numerical simulation. Eleven new reported quasi-static bending tests of tibia mid-shaft, and additional eleven dynamic mid-shaft bending test results in the previous literature were used to define injury risk functions. Furthermore, to investigate the influence of tibia locations on bending tolerance, finite element simulations with lower limb model were implemented according to three-point bending and pedestrian impact conditions. The regressive curve of tibia bending tolerance was obtained from the simulations on the different impact locations, and indicated that tibia fracture tolerance could vary largely due to the impact locations for the car–pedestrian crash.     

磁流变液的汽车碰撞缓冲吸能装置设计

为了解决目前汽车保险杠刚度不可控、对不同碰撞环境适应性差的问题,针对磁流变液流变特性可控且吸能量大的特点,设计出阻尼力可控的保险杠缓冲吸能装置。以最大阻尼力和动态范围为优化目标,采用Matlab遗传算法对结构参数进行优化。分别建立装有传统吸能式保险杠和装有磁流变液缓冲吸能装置的整车碰撞模型,进行碰撞仿真实验。仿真结果表明:装有磁流变液缓冲吸能装置的汽车整车变形和最大碰撞力明显减小,可以有效减小对人员的伤害,提高汽车的被动安全性。     

The influence of gait stance on pedestrian lower limb injury risk

The effect of pedestrian gait on lower limb kinematics and injuries has not been analyzed. The purpose of this paper was therefore to investigate the effect of pedestrian gait on kinematics and injury risk to the lower limbs using the Total Human Model for Safety adult male pedestrian model together with FE models of vehicle front structures. The modeling results indicate that the tibia and femur cortical bone von-Mises stress and the lateral knee bending angle of an adult pedestrian are strongly dependent on the gait stance when struck by both a sedan car and an SUV at 40 km/h. The gait analysis shows that generally the leg of an adult pedestrian has lower injury risk when the knee is flexed and linear regressions show high negative correlation between knee flexion angle during impact and knee lateral bending angle and also high negative correlation between lower leg axial rotation during impact and knee lateral bending angle. Furthermore, in some gait stances a self-contact between the legs occurs, and the peak bones stresses and knee shearing displacement in the leg are then increased. Assessment of pedestrian lower limb injury should take account of these gait stance effects.     

乘用车前挡风玻璃角度对行人头部/颅脑损伤影响研究

头部/颅脑损伤在车辆与行人碰撞事故中频繁发生,而行人头部与挡风玻璃的碰撞是导致头部损伤的主要原因。旨在采用数值模拟方法研究乘用车挡风玻璃倾斜角度对行人头部/颅脑损伤的影响。采用TNO多刚体行人模型和THUMS4.0头颈部有限元模型耦合得到新的行人碰撞数值模型,并结合已有的多刚体乘用车模型,借助真实的行人碰撞交通事故案例对该耦合模型进行基于人车动力学响应的有效性验证。在此基础上,构建人车碰撞模型矩阵,其中挡风玻璃角度的变化范围设定为24°~50°(间隔为2°),车辆速度设置为45 km/h,行人与车辆碰撞位置时分别处于车辆前保险杠前端1/2和1/3处。分析结果表明,该耦合模型可以较准确地再现事故中的行人动力学响应;行人碰撞保险杠前端中间(即1/2处)位置时的头部损伤较1/3处更严重;头部损伤在本文所分析的变化范围内随挡风玻璃角度的增加呈先减小后增加的变化趋势,且当挡风玻璃角度位于32°~34°左右时损伤风险较低。     

Knee injuries in motor vehicle collisions: a study of the National Accident Sampling System database for the years 1979-1995

A detailed study of knee injuries recorded in the 1979–1995 National Accident Sampling System database maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was conducted. Injuries to other body regions were also considered in order to illustrate the relative frequency of knee injuries. This study demonstrated that knee injuries constitute ≈10% of all injuries recorded every year. However, the majority of these injuries were of low severity (i.e. contusions, abrasions, lacerations) with an abbreviated injury score (AIS) of 1. Most knee injuries occurred following a frontal collision with no intrusion. The study also indicated most knee fractures occur in crashes where the vehicle velocity differences (ΔVs) were less than 45 kmph, with some occurring at ΔVs as low as 10 kmph. Serious non-fracture knee injuries (i.e. ligament tears) rated AIS 2 accounted for 20 out of every 1000 injuries and predominantly occurred at ΔVs below 25 kmph. In this study it was noted that women were more likely to experience a knee contusion than men. This study further suggests that knee impact scenarios have remained relatively constant over the years as the knee injury rates showed little variation. The rate of lap and shoulder belt use was lower in occupants who experienced a knee injury vs. the rate in the overall database and airbags were present in only a small number of cases. As this study largely included only vehicles without airbags it provides a good baseline for analysis of the influence of the airbag on knee injury trends in the future.     

Analysis of crash parameters and driver characteristics associated with lower limb injury

This study aims to investigate changes in frequency, risk, and patterns of lower limb injuries due to vehicle and occupant parameters as a function of vehicle model year. From the National Automotive Sampling System-Crashworthiness Data System, 10,988 observations were sampled and analyzed, representing 4.7 million belted drivers involved in frontal crashes for the years 1998–2010.A logistic regression model was developed to understand the association of sustaining knee and below knee lower limb injuries of moderate or greater severity with motor vehicle crash characteristics such as vehicle type and model years, toepan and instrument panel intrusions in addition to the occupant’s age, gender, height and weight. Toepan intrusion greater than 2 cm was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of injury (odds ratio: 9.10, 95% confidence interval 1.82–45.42). Females sustained a higher likelihood of distal lower limb injuries (OR: 6.83, 1.56–29.93) as compared to males. Increased mass of the driver was also found to have a positive association with injury (OR: 1.04, 1.02–1.06), while age and height were not associated with injury likelihood. Relative to passenger cars, vans exhibited a protective effect against sustaining lower limb injury (OR: 0.24, 0.07–0.78), whereas no association was shown for light trucks (OR: 1.31, 0.69–2.49) or SUVs (OR: 0.76, 0.28–2.02).To examine whether current crash testing results are representative of real-world NASS-CDS findings, data from frontal offset crash tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) were examined. IIHS data indicated a decreasing trend in vehicle foot well and toepan intrusion, foot accelerations, tibia axial forces and tibia index in relation to increasing vehicle model year between the year 1995 and 2013. Over 90% of vehicles received the highest IIHS rating, with steady improvement from the upper and lower tibia index, tibia axial force and the resultant foot acceleration considering both left and right extremities. Passenger cars received the highest rating followed by SUVs and light trucks, while vans attained the lowest rating.These results demonstrate that while there has been steady improvement in vehicle crash test performance, below-knee lower extremity injuries remain the most common AIS 2+ injury in real-world frontal crashes.     

Vehicle mismatch: injury patterns and severity

Light truck vehicles (LTV) are becoming more popular on US highways. This creates greater opportunity for collisions with passenger vehicles (PV). The mismatch in weight, stiffness, and height between LTV and PV has been surmised to result in increased fatalities among PV occupants when their vehicles collide with LTV. We reviewed cases of vehicle mismatch collisions in the Seattle Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) database to establish patterns and source of injury. Of the first 200 Seattle CIREN cases reviewed, 32 collisions with 41 occupant cases were found to involve LTV versus PV. The cases were reviewed by type of collision and vehicle of injured occupant: side impact of PV with LTV, front impact of PV with LTV, and front impact of LTV with PV. For each type of crash, injury patterns and mechanisms were identified. For side impact to PV, head and upper thorax injuries were frequently encountered due to LTV bumper frame contact above the PV side door reinforcement. For frontal impact to PV, severe multiple extremity fractures along with some head and chest injuries were caused by intrusion of the instrument panel and steering column due to bumper frame override of the LTV. Underriding of the PV when colliding with the LTV resulted in severe lower extremity fractures of the LTV occupant due to intrusion of the toe pan into the vehicle compartment of the LTV. The injuries and the sources identified in this case series support the need for re-designing both LTV and PV to improve vehicle compatibility. Revising Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 214 to reinforce the entire door, consider adding side airbags, and re-engineering LTV bumpers and/or frame heights and PV front ends are possible ways to reduce these injuries and deaths by making the vehicles more compatible.     

A simple defense conservative model for mass requirements of hypervelocity projectile impact shields for reentry vehicles

Simple analytical modeling of the physics of interaction of hypervelocity (50–100 km/s) projectiles with a bumper shield countermeasure is given. The interaction of projectile and bumper is discussed briefly. Expansion of bumper/projectile debris in the region between bumper and underlying vehicle and interaction of bumper/projectile debris cloud with vehicle are examined. Expansion of debris is treated as an expansion superimposed upon a translation with partition derived from a simple inelastic collision model. The effect of nonunity aspect ratio of compressed debris is included. Debris colliding elastically with the vehicle will impart momentum equal to twice the incident normal component. A steady-state diffusion model is used to estimate the effect of stagnation radiative loss on collision elasticity. Impulse may be reduced up to a factor of 2 by stagnation radiative losses for small projectiles and large bumper/vehicle stand-off. Stagnation radiation loss is small for larger projectiles and smaller stand-off. Impulse can be enhanced by vehicle ablation from radiative coupling, shock heating (inadequate stand-off), or liquid droplet microcratering (inadequate bumper thickness). Estimates of required bumper mass are given for a specific example.     

薄面板复合材料蜂窝夹层结构冲击试验

为研究薄面板复合材料蜂窝夹层结构在冲击载荷下的接触力响应和损伤情况,用两种不同质量的冲头对不同面板厚度的复合材料夹层结构进行了多种能量的落锤式冲击试验,并对冲击后的试验件进行了损伤测量。结果表明：冲击能量相对较低时,最大接触力较小,随着冲击能量的增加,最大接触力在增大过程中会出现门槛值,即达到某一值后不再上升。低能量下,冲击损伤表现为面板凹坑和冲击点周围的少量分层,随着冲击能量变大,面板逐渐出现纤维断裂进而被穿透。面板未穿透时,冲头会反弹,接触力-时间曲线的下降段没有台阶,分层区域直径约为冲头直径的1.2倍;面板穿透时,冲头不反弹,接触力-时间曲线下降段出现台阶,分层区域直径约为冲头直径的1.8倍。当最大接触力达到门槛值后,相同冲击能量下,冲头质量越大,冲击持续时间越长,凹坑越深。     

A study of bicyclist kinematics and injuries based on reconstruction of passenger car–bicycle accident in China

Like pedestrians, bicyclists are vulnerable road users, representing a population with a high risk of fatal and severe injuries in traffic accidents as they are unprotected during vehicle collisions. The objective of this study is to investigate the kinematics response of bicyclists and the correlation of the injury severity with vehicle impact speed. Twenty-four car–bicyclist cases with detailed information were selected for accident reconstruction using mathematical models, which was implemented in the MADYMO program. The dynamic response of bicyclists in the typical impact configuration and the correlation of head impact conditions were analyzed and discussed with respect to the head impact speed, time of head impact and impact angle of bicyclists to vehicle impact speed. Furthermore, the injury distribution of bicyclists and the risk of head injuries and fractures of lower limbs were investigated in terms of vehicle impact speed. The results indicate that wrap-around distance (WAD), head impact speed, time of head impact, head impact angle, and throw-out distance (TOD) of the bicyclists have a strong relationship with vehicle impact speed. The vehicle impact speed corresponding to a 50% probability of head AIS 2+ injuries, head AIS 3+ injuries, and lower limb fracture risk for bicyclists is 53.8 km/h, 58.9 km/h, and 41.2 km/h, respectively. A higher vehicle impact speed produces a higher injury risk to bicyclist. The results could provide background knowledge for the establishment or modification of pedestrian regulations considering bicyclist protection as well as being helpful for developing safety measures and protection devices for bicyclists.     

Child pedestrian anthropometry: evaluation of potential impact points during a crash

This paper highlights the potential impact points of a child pedestrian during a crash with the front end of a vehicle. Child anthropometry was defined for ages between 3 and 15 years. It was based on the measurement of seven different segment body heights (knee, femur, pelvis, shoulder, neck, chin, vertex) performed on about 2,000 French children. For each dimension, the 5^th, 50^th and 95^th percentile values were reported, and the corresponding linear regression lines were given. Then these heights were confronted with three different vehicle shapes, corresponding to a passenger car, a sport utility vehicle and a light truck, to identify impact points. In particular, we show that the thigh is directly hit by the bumper for children above 12 years of age, whereas the head principally impacts the hood. The influence of child anthropometry on the pedestrian trajectory and the comparison with test procedures in regulation are discussed.     

Injury risk curves for the skeletal knee-thigh-hip complex for knee-impact loading

Injury risk curves for the skeletal knee-thigh-hip (KTH) relate peak force applied to the anterior aspect of the flexed knee, the primary source of KTH injury in frontal motor-vehicle crashes, to the probability of skeletal KTH injury. Previous KTH injury risk curves have been developed from analyses of peak knee-impact force data from studies where knees of whole cadavers were impacted. However, these risk curves either neglect the effects of occupant gender, stature, and mass on KTH fracture force, or account for them using scaling factors derived from dimensional analysis without empirical support. A large amount of experimental data on the knee-impact forces associated with KTH fracture are now available, making it possible to estimate the effects of subject characteristics on skeletal KTH injury risk by statistically analyzing empirical data.Eleven studies were identified in the biomechanical literature in which the flexed knees of whole cadavers were impacted. From these, peak knee-impact force data and the associated subject characteristics were reanalyzed using survival analysis with a lognormal distribution. Results of this analysis indicate that the relationship between peak knee-impact force and the probability of KTH fracture is a function of age, total body mass, and whether the surface that loads the knee is rigid. Comparisons between injury risk curves for the midsize adult male and small adult female crash test dummies defined in previous studies and new risk curves for these sizes of occupants developed in this study suggest that previous injury risk curves generally overestimate the likelihood of KTH fracture at a given peak knee-impact force. Future work should focus on defining the relationships between impact force at the human knee and peak axial compressive forces measured by load cells in the crash test dummy KTH complex so that these new risk curves can be used with ATDs.     

Injury patterns in frontal crashes: The association between knee-thigh-hip (KTH) and serious intra-abdominal injury

Safety belts protect occupants in frontal impacts by reducing occupant deceleration and preventing the occupant from hitting interior vehicle components likely to cause injury. However, occupants moving forward during the impact may contact the safety belt webbing across their chest and abdomen. We hypothesized that if the occupant loaded their knee-thigh-hip (KTH) region with enough force to result in injury to this region—it might prevent compression (and injury) of their abdomen by the safety belt. Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) data were used to test the association between KTH and intra-abdominal injury related to safety belts. Odds ratios with 95% confidence limits (CL) and logistic regression models were used to assess statistical significance. Analyses were based on 706 CIREN adult, front seat occupants using their safety belt and injured in frontal crashes. Occupants with KTH injury were four times less likely (adjusted odds ratio = 0.25, 95% CL 0.10, 0.62) to have concomitant serious intra-abdominal injury caused by the safety belt. Although safety belts save lives and prevent serious injury, some occupants may sustain serious intra-abdominal injury when the abdomen is loaded by the safety belt during a frontal impact. These results may be useful to motor vehicle manufacturers and others who design and test motor vehicle safety systems.     

Biomechanics of the human chest, abdomen, and pelvis in lateral impact

Fourteen unembalmed cadavers were subjected to 44 blunt lateral impacts at velocities of approximately 4.5, 6.7, or 9.4 m/s with a 15 cm flat circular interface on a 23.4 kg pendulum accelerated to impact speed by a pneumatic impactor. Chest and abdominal injuries consisted primarily of rib fractures, with a few cases of lung or liver laceration in the highest severity impacts. There were two cases of pubic ramus fracture in the pelvic impacts. Logist analysis of the biomechanical responses and injury indicated that the maximum Viscous response had a slightly better correlation with injury than maximum compression for chest and abdominal impacts. A tolerance level of VC = 1.47 m/s for the chest and VC = 1.98 m/s for the abdomen were determined for a 25% probability of critical injury. Maximum compression was similarly set at C = 38% for the chest and at C = 44% for the abdomen. The experiments indicate that chest and abdominal injury may occur by a viscous mechanism during the rapid phase of body compression, and that the Viscous and compression responses are effective, complementary measures of injury risk in side impact. Although serious pelvic injury was infrequent, lateral public ramus fracture correlated with compression of the pelvis, not impact force or pelvic acceleration. Pelvic tolerance was set at 27% compression.     

Car occupant safety in frontal crashes: a parameter study of vehicle mass, impact speed, and inherent vehicle protection

A new mathematical model was developed to estimate average injury and fatality rates in frontal car-to-car crashes for changes in vehicle fleet mass, impact speed distribution, and inherent vehicle protection. The estimates were calculated from injury/fatality risk data, delta-V distribution and collision probability of two vehicles, where delta-V depends on impact speed and mass of the colliding vehicles. The impact speed distribution was assumed to be unaffected by a change in fleet mass distribution.

The results showed that safety in frontal crashes would improve 27–35% by a 10% increase in fatality risk parameters, which reflected substantial improvement in inherent vehicle protection. A 40% safety improvement was attained by a 10% impact speed reduction. Consequences of vehicle fleet mass were not as strong, but depended on the average mass ratio of the fleet. A reduction in mass range would be the most beneficial, while a uniform mass reduction of 20% would increase the fatality rate by 5.4%. The model estimates trends in traffic safety and may help to identify priorities in active and passive safety.     

Background to the derivation of partial safety factors for BS 7910 and API 579

The background to the derivation of partial safety factors (PSFs) given in two standards, BS 7910 and API 579, is described. In both cases, PSFs are provided to achieve selected target reliability levels against the failure modes of fracture and plastic collapse in structural components. The recommended PSFs in the two standards are compared in order to investigate differences. Example fitness for service assessments are also conducted in order to explore the potential impact of differences on the output of an assessment. Work being carried out to review and update the current partial safety factors for the next revision of BS 7910 is discussed.     

Are electric self-balancing scooters safe in vehicle crash accidents?

With the pressing demand of environmentally friendly personal transportation vehicles, mobility scooters become more and more popular for the short-distance transportation. Similar to pedestrians and bicyclists, scooter riders are vulnerable road users and are expected to receive severe injuries during traffic accidents. In this research, a MADYMO model of vehicle–scooter crash scenarios is numerically set up. The model of the vehicle with the scenario is validated in pedestrian–vehicle accident investigation with previous literatures in terms of throwing distance and HIC₁₅ value. HIC₁₅ values gained at systematic parametric studies. Injury information from various vehicle crashing speeds (i.e. from 10 m/s to 24 m/s), angles (i.e. from 0 to 360°), scooter's speeds (i.e. from 0 m/s to 4 m/s), contact positions (i.e. left, middle and right bumper positions) are extracted, analyzed and then compared with those from widely studied pedestrian–vehicle and bicycle–vehicle accidents. Results show that the ESS provides better impact protection for the riders. Riding ESS would not increase the risk higher than walking at the same impact conditions in terms of head injury. The responsible reasons should be the smaller friction coefficient between the wheel-road than the heel-road interactions, different body gestures leading to different contact positions, forces and timing. Results may shed lights upon the future research of mobility scooter safety analysis and also the safety design guidance for the scooters.