A numerical investigation into the influence of hip posture on occupant pelvis fracture in vehicle frontal impact

Journal article, 2015

This paper aims to develop a virtual test method for assessing occupant pelvis injury in vehicle frontal crash, in order to provide relevant biomechanical parameters for occupant safety design. Accordingly, based on the anatomical structure information of a 50th percentile American male and using LS-DYNA code, a relatively refined finite element model for occupant lower extremity is created with its effectiveness verified by the simulation tests of side impact on pelvis and axial impact on knee-thigh-hip complex. Then a series of virtual tests are conducted on the model to investigate the influence of hip posture with different flexion angles and abduction angles on the failure force of pelvis. The results show that the pelvis fracture location and failure force under axial impact on knee depend on hip posture due to the different strength of various loaded points on acetabulum wall. With the increase of thigh flexion and abduction angles, pelvis fracture location shifts from ilium to acetabulum. The failure force of pelvis goes up with the increase of thigh flexion angle, while it goes up first and then falls down with the rise of thigh abduction angle. The findings of this study provide a reference basis for pelvis injury assessment in vehicle frontal crash safety design.