Comparison of small female PMHS thoracic responses to scaled response corridors in a frontal hub impact

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study was to generate biomechanical response corridors of the small female thorax during a frontal hub impact and evaluate scaled corridors that have been used to assess biofidelity of small female anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) and human body models (HBMs). Methods Three small female postmortem human subjects (PMHS) were tested under identical conditions, in which the thorax was impacted using a 14.0 kg pneumatic impactor at an impact velocity of 4.3 m/s. Impact forces to PMHS thoraces were measured using a load cell installed behind a circular impactor face with a 15.2 cm diameter. Thoracic deflections were quantified using a chestband positioned at mid-sternum. Strain gages installed on the ribs and sternum identified fracture timing. Biomechanical response corridors (force-deflection) were generated and compared to scaled small female thoracic corridors using a traditional scaling method (TSM) and rib response-based scaling method (RRSM). A BioRank System Score (BRSS) was used to quantify differences between the small female PMHS data and both scaled corridors. Results Coefficients of variation from the three small female PMHS responses were less than 2% for peak force and 7% for peak deflection. Overall, the scaled corridor means determined from the TSM and RRSM were less than two standard deviations away from the mean small female PMHS corridors (BRSS < 2.0). The RRSM resulted in smaller deviation (BRSS = 1.1) from the PMHS corridors than the TSM (BRSS = 1.7), suggesting the RRSM is an appropriate scaling method. Conclusions New small female PMHS force-deflection data are provided in this study. Scaled corridors from the TSM, which have been used to optimize current safety tools, were comparable to the small female PMHS corridors. The RRSM, which has the great benefit of using rib structural properties instead of requiring whole PMHS data, resulted in better agreement with the small female PMHS data than the TSM and deserves further investigation to identify scaling factors for other population demographics.