Hood design analysis of child-pedestrian head protection

Journal article, 2013

To improve safety performance of the investigated vehicle for child pedestrian protection, a finite element model of child pedestrian head-form impact with hood was developed. The validity of the proposed model was evaluated based on the test data of a similar car in literature. A comparison of protective performance between steel and aluminum hoods with the same initial structure was conducted for pedestrian protection. Two types of alloy aluminium hoods with wavilness inner panel hood and sandwich structure hood were designed to protect pedestrian head. The energy absorber structure between hood-side-edges and wings was investigated to increase energy absorption and minimize the head impact acceleration. The results show that a significant mitigation of the head injury risk is achieved by the proposed hood design during the child head-form impact with hood in the test zones of the investigated car. The two types of proposed hoods have a comparable bending static stiffness with that of original hood, and increased lateral bending and torsion stiffness can be achieved.