Title: Pedestrian injury severity in the event of a collision with a truck: are energy absorbing adaptive deformable fronts suitable?

Authors: Sudeshna Mitra; Nilanjan Mitra; K.S.V. Lakshminarayana

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India ' Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India

Abstract: It is well known that adaptive deformable fronts attached to trucks reduce pedestrian injury. However, the suitability of these frontal attachment devices from a holistic point of view, considering both primary and secondary impacts, is questioned in this paper. Using head-injury-criteria index, the effects of pedestrian gait and different closing speeds are considered for evaluation of numerous truck-pedestrian side and rear impact situations. Numerical simulations, considering coupled rigid and deformable-body dynamics, have been carried out in this paper to arrive at conclusions. For primary side impact scenario DEA frontal attachment provides a performance improvement specifically for 0% gait; however, the performance improvement is non-uniform for other gait cycles. For primary rear impact scenarios, it is observed that DEA is not a useful alternative at all. For secondary collision scenarios (involving both side and rear impacts) DEA is not at all an effective means for performance improvement.

Keywords: pedestrian-truck collision; adaptive deformable fronts; primary and secondary impact; pedestrian gait.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVS.2018.097709

International Journal of Vehicle Safety, 2018 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.235 - 252

Received: 20 May 2017
Accepted: 16 Jul 2018
Published online: 05 Feb 2019 *

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