Development and Validation of Side Impact Sled Testing FE Model

To confirm the effectiveness of protection equipment installed in vehicles, studying the degree of impact is fundamental to understand the effect of automobile collisions on the human body. Therefore, the dynamic response of the human body to traffic crashes should be analyzed to reduce the level of occupant injuries. Generally, the experimental method is complex and expensive. Recently, numerical crash simulations provide a valuable tool for automotive engineers. This study investigates the development of a sled test FE model for studying side impact. The side impact sled system was developed to simulate the kinematics of a side impact crash test. The crash simulations were conducted using the LS-DYNA3D finite element code. The dynamic response of the human body to crashes is discussed herein. Additionally, the injuries of occupants were measured. To confirm the accuracy of the proposed sled test FE model, the current results are compared with those obtained from experimental tests. The results indicate that the sled test FE model proposed in this study has considerable potential for evaluating a vehicle's crash safety performance and guiding the future development of safety technologies.