Styling and Packaging Approach to Meet Pedestrian Upper Leg Requirements as per Euro NCAP Protocol

In most of the countries all over the world, thousands of pedestrians and vulnerable road users are struck by motor vehicles and getting killed or get severe injuries. Accident research data shows that pedestrians are a significant proportion of all road user casualties [1]. In pedestrian impact with vehicle front end, several organ forms impact directly to front end of the vehicles and get severe injuries in head, lower leg and pelvis region. Pelvis region of pedestrian get severe injuries due to hit by Bonnet Leading Edge. Impact force is major injury driving parameter in case of pelvis region. In earlier Euro NCAP Pedestrian Protocol -v7.1.1 [2], upper leg impact energy calculation was based on BLE (Bonnet Leading Edge) height and bumper lead. Vehicle front end styling was not playing any role in deciding upper leg impact energy. Upper leg impact performance was purely dependent on BLE height and package space available. Whereas in current Euro NCAP Pedestrian Protocol -v8.4 [3], upper leg impact energy calculation is estimated based on vehicle front end styling and real world relevance of test. Meeting upper leg impact requirements based on package space requirements is difficult due to constraints on vehicle length, aggregate package and styling constraints. Pedestrian upper leg can be met with considering constraint on packaging space, with change in vehicle front end styling and strategic bumper cross member placement. Upper leg impact energy can be significantly reduced and upper leg requirements can be met with minor changes in styling and bumper cross member placement. Vehicle styling and packaging approach to reduce upper leg impact energies is described in this paper which will help in meeting upper Leg impact requirements with less package space and engineering efforts and thus help in designing pedestrian friendly vehicle front end to achieve better pedestrian safety rating.