This paper describes some results obtained from analytical three-dimensional motion simulations of child and adult pedestrians impacted by an automobile. The baseline geometric and stiffness parameters used in this simulation correspond to a typical mid-size vehicle, the latter being measured by a dynamic impactor developed for this study. The effects of variation of several of the vehicle's front-end design parameters on the impact severities of a 50th-percentile male adult and a 6-year-old child pedestrian are studied using experimental design techniques. Both the main effects and the first-order interactions among the parameters are investigated, and it is shown that the countermeasure suggested for reducing adult pedestrians' injuries could aggravate child pedestrians' injuries.(a) for the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 275448.
Samenvatting