Could an isolated human body lower limb model predict leg biomechanical response of Chinese pedestrians in vehicle collisions?

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether an isolated human body lower limb FE model could predict leg kinematics and biomechanical response of a full body Chinese pedestrian model in vehicle collisions. Methods: A human body lower limb FE model representing midsize Chinese adult male anthropometry was employed with different upper body weight attachments being evaluated by comparing the predictions to those of a full body pedestrian model in vehicle-to-pedestrian collisions considering different front-end shapes. Results: The results indicate that upper body mass has a significant influence on pedestrian lower limb injury risk, the effect varies from vehicle front-end shape and is more remarkable to the femur and knee ligaments than to the tibia. In particular, the upper body mass can generally increase femur and knee ligaments injury risk, but has no obvious effect on the injury risk of tibia. The results also show that a higher attached buttock mass is needed for isolated pedestrian lower limb model for impacts with vehicles of higher bonnet leading edge. Conclusions: The findings of this study may suggest that it is necessary to consider vehicle shape variation in assessment of vehicle pedestrian protection performance and leg-form impactors with adaptive upper body mass should be used for vehicles with different front-end shapes, and the use of regional leg-form impactor modeling the local anthropometry to evaluate the actual lower limb injury of pedestrians in different countries and regions.