Influence of pedestrian head surrogate and boundary conditions on head injury risk prediction

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to investigate the influence of head models and boundary conditions on the head response in the case of pedestrian accidents. Simulations have been carried out, regarding results both in terms of global parameters and more detailed intracerebral mechanical parameters. Three head models have been used (ISO headform, Hybrid III head and ULP head Finite Element Model) for these simulations, either considered as isolated heads or coupled with the whole body. It was shown that inertial properties of Hybrid III head are closed to the human head, which strongly influences rotational acceleration and also intracerebral shearing. When coupled to the whole body, it appeared that initial car bonnet deformation induced by shoulder or back leads to dramatic head loading. As a whole, the results obtained demonstrate the necessity of taking into account more realistic head inertia and boundary conditions for future pedestrian head impact standard development.