Title: Pedestrian safety: an overview of physical test surrogates, numerical models and availability of cadaveric data for model validation

Authors: Anil Kalra; Vishal Gupta; Ming Shen; Xin Jin; Clifford C. Chou; King H. Yang

Addresses: Bio-engineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ' Bio-engineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ' Bio-engineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ' Bio-engineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ' Bio-engineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA ' Bio-engineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

Abstract: Numerous efforts have been made to replicate pedestrian-car crashes experimentally or numerically to study the pedestrian injury biomechanics for developing countermeasures for pedestrian protection. This overview summarises such efforts towards pedestrian safety and available surrogates used in optimisation of pedestrian-friendly vehicle designs. This paper provides not only available physical surrogates (impactors and pedestrian dummies) used by different regulatory agencies, but also a collection of various numerical models used to predict injury responses in car-pedestrian impacts. Additionally, an overview of many reported cadaveric experiments performed as sustained by pedestrians in car crashes is presented. A validation matrix is proposed for correlating existing/future numerical models with available cadaveric test data. This is to ensure development of high predictive quality FE whole body human models to assess injury risk to pedestrians in car crashes, and in turn for continued improvement over design of pedestrian friendly vehicle front-end and effective countermeasures for pedestrian protection.

Keywords: pedestrian safety; validation matrix; finite element analysis; FEA; whole body human models; safety regulations; physical test surrogates; numerical modelling; cadaveric data; model validation; pedestrian injuries; injury biomechanics; vehicle design; car crashes; road traffic accidents; car-pedestrian impacts; pedestrian protection.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2016.077152

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2016 Vol.9 No.1, pp.39 - 71

Received: 23 Feb 2016
Accepted: 30 Mar 2016
Published online: 21 Jun 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article