Evaluation of Pelvic Fracture Tolerance in Side Impact

Pelvic fracture is a typical lesion sustained by the occupant of a vehicle involved in a lateral impact collision who is seated on the impact side. If this fracture is generally not severe by itself, it is nevertheless often associated with severe abdominal lesions.

Study of injury mechanisms in lateral impact collisions shows that there are two ways of ensuring a better protection of the occupant in this type of accident: first by preventing intrusion so that the contact velocity “occupant/inner door” is decreased, secondly by absorbing the shock of the occupant against the inner door, especially at pelvis and thorax levels.

It is necessary to have a good knowledge of human tolerance to fracture of the considered body segment in order to determine the mechanical properties of the padding material.

The aim of this study is to determine the tolerance of the human pelvis. This study takes into account results of 36 impact tests against the pelvis of 10 cadavers and proposes injury criteria values to characterize the risk of pelvic fracture.