A proposal for integrating pre-crash vehicle dynamics into occupant injury protection evaluation of small electric vehicles

Paper in proceedings, 2015

This research addresses integration of pre‐crash dynamics into crash phase using two different human body models. The methodology discussed is a manual way of utilizing data from two different simulations and developing an interlinking chain of data to explore feasibility of integration. The crash pulse was based on a collision scenario of 35 km/h (MPDB – 35 km/h ‐ 30⁰ ‐ 50% offset configuration and a generic 1g braking pulse for the pre‐crash phase was considered for Autonomous Emergency Braking events. Data transfer from the pre‐crash to in‐crash phase involved position, velocity, stress and strains for different body parts to introduce pre‐crash dynamic effects. Two parameters, chest compression and contact force of Human Body Models with airbag, were chosen to assess risk of injures to head and thorax. Simulations with different crash initiation times (650ms, 830 ms and 970 ms) were used to assess response of restraint systems to changing inertial loads of occupants. The simulations results indicated that this method of data transfer is viable and can be used to assess injury risks for occupant. The coupling of two different simulations with different models could definitely yield accurate results, but, is sufficient to ensure realistic occupant kinematics and reasonable injury prediction capabilities.