Population Variance in Pelvic Response to Lateral Impacts - A Global Sensitivity Analysis

Paper in proceeding, 2022

Pelvic fracture remains the third most common moderate to severe injury in motor vehicle crashes, and the dominating lower extremity injury in lateral impacts. An essential tool for analysis of injury, and real-world occupant protection, are finite element human body models. However, today's state-of-the-art pelvis models do not adequately consider the variability in shape and size naturally occurring in human populations. In this study, we developed a new detailed pelvis finite element model, morphable to enable representation of the population shape variance. The model was validated using force-displacement data from post-mortem human subjects, in lateral loading of the denuded pelvis, followed by a global sensitivity analysis. The results suggests that in lateral impacts to the pelvis, pelvic shape contributes to the model response variance by the same magnitude as pelvic bone material stiffness, and that each of these contributions are approximately twice that of the cortical bone thickness. Hence, to model pelvic response for a general population accurately, future studies must consider both pelvic shape and the material properties in the analysis. Increased knowledge about population variability, and inclusion in safety evaluations, can result in more robust systems that reduce the risk of pelvic injuries in real-world accidents.