During recent years the accident simulation program PC-Crash was developed. This software simulates vehicle movement before, during and after the impact, using 3D vehicle and scene models.
When reconstructing car accidents, quite often questions arise regarding occupant movement and loading. Especially important is the influence of different types of restraint systems on the occupant.
MADYMO® is a software tool which was developed by TNO in the Netherlands and which is well known in the automotive industry for the simulation of occupant movement. It allows the simulation of all kinds of modern restraint systems such as airbags and seatbelts with and without pretensioners. As the software is used in the automotive industry quite extensively, a huge validated database of dummy and human models is available.
Since MADYMO® demands the setup of quite complicated input files, its use normally requires a high level of expertise. A new interface has been developed between MADYMO® and PC-Crash so that, after the reconstruction of an accident, only a few additional parameters regarding restraint system, seat and occupant must be defined. PC-Crash then creates all necessary input files for MADYMO® and starts the occupant simulation. The results are then re-imported into PC-Crash for visualization and further analysis.
The paper discusses the physical background of the model, its capabilities and its limitations. One major point is the definition of the vehicle movement, which of course is an important input parameter for MADYMO®. The model is validated in this paper through the reconstruction of crash tests.