Modification of the Lower Limb and the Pelvis for the Pedestrian Dummy

In order to further reduce the pedestrian fatalities, the improvement of pedestrian safety performance of vehicles is needed. One of the way to further understand read-world pedestrian accidents is the evaluation by using a whole-body pedestrian dummy. In the past studies, the leg, the thigh and the pelvis of the pedestrian dummy were developed and improved. However, the requirements for the biofidelity of the pedestrian dummy have been improved in SAE J2782. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate these responses of the past studies by using new requirements and to modify these parts that didn’t meet them. The force-defection curves from 3-point lateral bending tests for the leg and the thigh were compared with the corridors updated in SAE J2782. The biofidelity of the pelvis was evaluated in dynamic lateral compression tests of the isolated pelvis. The sacrum and the pubis force-deflection curves of the iliac or the acetabulum impact were compared with the corridors. The leg and the pubis responses of the iliac and acetabulum impacts of the past studies were within the corridors. However, the response of the thigh was close to the lower bound of the corridor although it was almost the middle of the corridor of the past study, and the sacrum responses of the iliac and the acetabulum impact were not within the corridor. Therefore, the structure of the thigh flesh was modified in order to increase the stiffness, the thickness of the pelvis was increased and the sacroiliac joint rubber was added. As the results of these modifications, the biofidelity of the thigh and the pelvis was improved.