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Finite Element Modelling of Pedestrian Head Impact Onto Automobile Hoods
Technical Paper
916041
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
Accidents involving pedestrian impact have been targeted as an
area of automobile safety worthy of study and research. Among the
many approaches to this problem is to design automobiles for less
severe pedestrian injuries. Of particular concern are injuries to
the pedestrian's head caused by impact with the automobile
body. Redesign of automobiles for pedestrian safety is obviously a
costly undertaking, but it is reasonable to expect that
incorporating simple modifications into existing designs can reduce
the number and severity of pedestrian head injuries quickly and at
low cost. New designs can be proposed and prototypes built and
tested using established techniques. However, in order to make
pedestrian head injury mitigation more appealing, a low-cost design
technique must be found.
To this end, finite element analysis (FEA) is applied to
mitigation of pedestrian head injury. Design prototypes are
modelled and impacted by a simulated pedestrian head form using
readily available finite element code, namely, ANSYS and DYNA3D.
Results are then analyzed, animations studied, and further design
improvements proposed and tested. This may be followed by
verification with a test impact of the new prototype. Finite
element analysis promises to make pedestrian head injury mitigation
appealing and cost effective and thus be incorporated into
automobile design