Using Human Body Models to Assess Knee Ligament Injury in Knee Hyperextension

Abstract - Shared autonomous vehicles open possibilities for novel seating configurations, enabling greater interior spaciousness by making the front row seats rear-facing or removing one row of seats altogether. Frontal crash simulations with a forward-facing Hybrid III mid-size male FEM demonstrated that the unrestrained legs can swing up freely until they stop at the end of the range of knee extension. High tibia moments and tibia indices result. Similar crash simulations with the GHBMC M50-O demonstrated knee ligament separation, while those with the more advanced GHBMC F05-O did not. To better understand the knee responses, the mass, C.G. and moments of inertia of the GHBMC M50 legs were applied to the GHBMC F05 with its more detailed representation of the knee. The peak knee ligament loads are compared to published failure load data.