Influence of Joint Structure in Multibody Model on Behavior Analysis of Crash Test Dummy

This study developed a new multibody model that accurately represents the collision behavior of crash test dummies using PC-Crash. The model replicates the shape and weight of an actual dummy. To investigate the influence of joint structures on collision behavior, an additional multibody model was developed to reproduce the joint structure of the actual dummy. These models were applied to analyze occupant behavior in a full-frontal rigid barrier and pedestrian behavior in a vehicle-to-pedestrian impact experiments. A comparison of the multibody model simulations with actual dummy impact experiments revealed that the behavior of the multibody model, which simulates the joint structure of the dummy, closely matched that of the actual dummy. The results indicate that joint structure significantly influences collision behavior, and accurately recreating it improves the precision of crash test dummy collision behavior analysis using PC-Crash.