Characterization of Occupant Lower Extremity Behavior During Moderate-to-High Speed Rear Impacts Armstrong Forensic Engineers Incorporated

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Rundell, Rundell, author.

Contributor:

Guiang, Allison

Meyer, Eric G.

Weaver, Brian

Conference Name:

SAE 2013 World Congress & Exhibition (2013-04-16 : Detroit, Michigan, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2013

Summary:

Injury potential to the neck has been studied extensively forrear-end impacts. The capacity for injury to other body regions,such as the lower extremities, has not been previously explored.The objective of the current study was to characterize the forcesand motions experienced in the lower extremities duringmoderate-to-high speed rear-end impacts.The current study utilized publicly available rear-end crashtests. Forty-two 50 km/hour, 20% offset, 180° barrier rear-endimpacts were used. The occupant lower extremity behavior wasanalyzed for 63 ATDs, and included 42 driver's seats, 8 frontpassenger seats, and 13 right-rear seat scenarios.Three consistent events were identified during each test, in thefollowing sequence; 1. initial compressive femur force, 2.secondary tensile femur force, and 3. rearward pelvis accelerationpeak. In addition to pelvic contact with the seatback, in somecases the loading in the femur was influenced by contact betweenthe seat pan and the back of the tibia just below the knee. Thelarger, male occupants experienced higher magnitudes of femurcompression as the vehicle was impacted from the rear. The smaller,female occupants experienced predominately femur tension. Pelvicacceleration data corroborated these findings. Femur forces wereconsistent between both legs, indicating that there was littletorsion applied to ATDs during the rear-end crash tests.The current study indicates that occupant anthropometry and seatpan geometry play a significant role in loading of the lowerextremity in a rear-end impact

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2013-01-0222

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license