Seventeen Heidelberg type cadaveric side impact sled tests, two sled-to-sled tests, and forty-four pendulum tests have been conducted at Wayne State University. The aim was to determine human responses and tolerances in lateral collisions. This paper describes the development of a simplified finite element model (FEM) of a human occupant in a side impact configuration to simulate those cadaveric experiments. The major parameters used for comparison are: contact forces at the level of shoulder, thorax, abdomen and pelvis, lateral accelerations of ribs 4 and 8 and of T12, thoracic compression and injury functions Viscous Criterion (VC), Thoracic Trauma Index (TTI) and Average Spine Acceleration (ASA). A total of four runs to simulate Heidelberg type sled tests, eight runs to simulate pendulum tests and two runs to simulate sled-to-sled tests were performed. Chest band data from the latest sled-to-sled tests were compared with the calculated deformable chest contours. It was found that there was a fair agreement between model results and experimental data. The model can be used to estimate the current chest injury parameters of an elderly occupant involved in a side impact. However, an accurate anatomical representation of the head, neck, shoulder and pelvis was not attempted, and the calculated stresses and strains have not been compared with the human data.
Abstract