Comparison of Average Female and Male Active HBM Responses in Whole-Sequence Frontal Crash Simulations

Paper in proceeding, 2023

Active human body models (HBMs) are important enablers for the simulation of occupant kinematics in pre-crash manoeuvres in whole-sequence crash scenarios. Pre-crash kinematics as well as injury risks have been shown to vary with sex. In this study, an average-sized female version (F50) of the active M50 SAFER HBM was developed using parametric mesh morphing, complemented with scaling of the muscle cross-sectional area. The active F50 model was validated with respect to volunteer pre-crash kinematics in braking and evasive turning manoeuvres, for two different belt systems (standard/pre-tensioned). Overall, the active F50 model predictions were slightly on the compliant side, compared to the volunteer test data. However, quantitatively using the CORA method, the active F50 model showed good biofidelity (0.81/0.89) for the pre-crash braking manoeuvre and fair biofidelity (0.60/0.75) for the evasive turning manoeuvre. Whole-sequence, combined, pre-crash and in-crash simulations were run with the active F50 and M50 models. They revealed some differences between the models, for which the active F50 model showed lower upper body forward displacements, and higher pelvis displacements, for two crash configurations and belt systems, compared to the active M50 model. Overall, however, the differences were small between the two HBMs.