How much does the injury risk between average female and average male anthropometry differ? – A simulation study with open source tools for virtual crash safety assessments
Journal article, 2023
Differences in injury risk between females and males are often reported in field data analysis. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in kinematics and injury risks between average female and male anthropometry in two exemplary use cases. A simulation study comprising the newly introduced VIVA+ human body models (HBM) was performed for two use cases. The first use case relates to whiplash associated disorders sustained in rear impacts and the second to femur fractures in pedestrians impacted by passenger cars as field data indicates that females have higher injury risk compared to males in these scenarios. Detailed seat models and a generic vehicle exterior were used to simulate crash scenarios close to those currently tested in consumer information tests. In the evaluations with one of the vehicle seats and one car shape the injury risks were equal for both models. However, the risk of the average female HBM for whiplash associated disorders was 1.5 times higher compared to the average male HBM for the rear impacts in the other seat and 10 times higher for proximal femur fractures in the pedestrian impacts for one of the two evaluated vehicle shapes.. Further work is needed to fully understand trends observed in the field and to derive
Sex differences
Occupant Safety
Human Body Models
Rear Impact
Pedestrian Safety
VIVA+
Author
Corina Klug
Technische Universität Graz
David Bützer
AXA Switzerland
Johan Iraeus
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety
Jobin John
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety
Arne Keller
AGU Zurich
Michal Kowalik
Faurecia Services Groupe SASU
Christoph Leo
Technische Universität Graz
Ines Levallois
Faurecia Services Groupe SASU
I Putu Alit Putra
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety
Felix Ressi
Technische Universität Graz
Kai-Uwe Schmitt
AGU Zurich
Mats Svensson
Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety
Linus Trummler
AGU Zurich
Wim Wijnen
W2Economics
Astrid Linder
The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
AXA Switzerland
Accident Analysis and Prevention
0001-4575 (ISSN)
Vol. 193 107328Open Access Virtual Testing Protocols for Enhanced Road User Safety (VIRTUAL)
European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/768960), 2018-06-01 -- 2022-05-31.
Areas of Advance
Transport
Health Engineering
Subject Categories
Vehicle Engineering
DOI
10.1016/j.aap.2023.107328
Related datasets
OpenVT platform [dataset]
URI: https://openvt.eu/