Comparison of Bending Properties in Paired Human Ribs with and without Costal Cartilage.

Thoracic injuries, most frequently rib fractures, commonly occur in motor vehicle crashes. With an increased reliance on human body models (HBMs) for injury prediction in various crash scenarios, all thoracic tissues and structures require more comprehensive evaluation for improvement of HBMs. The objective of this study was to quantify the contribution of costal cartilage to whole rib bending properties in physical experiments.

Quantifying rider posture variability in powered two- and three-wheelers for safety assessment.

Objective: Injury outcomes for powered two- and three-wheeler (PTW) riders are influenced by the rider posture. To enable analysis of PTW rider accidents and development of protection systems, detailed whole-body posture data is needed. Therefore, the aim of this study is to fill this gap by providing collections of average male whole-body postures, including subpopulation variability, for different PTW types.

Explaining and predicting the increased thorax injury in aged females: age and subject-specific thorax geometry coupled with improved bone constitutive models and age-specific material properties evaluated in side impact conditions.

Predicting and understanding thorax injury is fundamental for the assessment and development of safety systems to mitigate injury risk to the increasing and vulnerable aged population. While computational human models have contributed to the understanding of injury biomechanics, contemporary human body models have struggled to predict rib fractures and explain the increased incidence of injury in the aged population. The present study enhanced young and aged human body models (HBMs) by integrating a biofidelic cortical bone constitutive model and population-based bone material properties.

Predicting occupant head displacements in evasive maneuvers; tuning and comparison of a rotational based and a translational based neck muscle controller.

Real-life car crashes are often preceded by an evasive maneuver, which can alter the occupant posture and muscle state. To simulate the occupant response in such maneuvers, human body models (HBMs) with active muscles have been developed. The aim of this study was to implement an omni-directional rotational head-neck muscle controller in the SAFER HBM and compare the bio-fidelity of the HBM with a rotational controller to the HBM with a translational controller, in simulations of evasive maneuvers.

Variability in Body Shape, Superficial Soft Tissue Geometry, and Seatbelt Fit Relative to the Pelvis in Automotive Postures-Methods for Volunteer Data Collection With Open Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Variability in body shape and soft tissue geometry have the potential to affect the body's interaction with automotive safety systems. In this study, we developed a methodology to capture information on body shape, superficial soft tissue geometry, skeletal geometry, and seatbelt fit relative to the skeleton-in automotive postures-using Open Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Volunteer posture and belt fit were first measured in a vehicle and then reproduced in a custom MRI-safe seat (with an MR-visible seatbelt) placed in an Open MR scanner.

Development of personalizable female and male pedestrian SAFER human body models.

Objectives: Vulnerable road users are globally overrepresented as victims of road traffic injuries. Developing biofidelic male and female pedestrian human body models (HBMs) that represent diverse anthropometries is essential to enhance road safety and propose intervention strategies.

Methods: In this study, 50th percentile male and female pedestrians of the SAFER HBM were developed via a newly developed image registration-based mesh morphing framework.

A First Step Toward a Family of Morphed Human Body Models Enabling Prediction of Population Injury Outcomes.

The injury risk in a vehicle crash can depend on occupant specific factors. Virtual crash testing using finite element human body models (HBMs) to represent occupant variability can enable the development of vehicles with improved safety for all occupants. In this study, it was investigated how many HBMs of different sizes that are needed to represent a population crash outcome through a metamodel.

Personalization of human body models and beyond via image registration.

Finite element human body models (HBMs) are becoming increasingly important numerical tools for traffic safety. Developing a validated and reliable HBM from the start requires integrated efforts and continues to be a challenging task. Mesh morphing is an efficient technique to generate personalized HBMs accounting for individual anatomy once a baseline model has been developed.

Analysis of injury mechanism and thoracic response of elderly, small female PMHS in near-side impact scenarios.

Objective: In 2020, 17% of all crash fatalities were individuals aged 65 years or older. Crash data also revealed that for older occupants, thoracic related injuries are among the leading causes of fatality. Historically, the majority of near-side impact postmortem human subjects (PMHS) studies used a generic load wall to capture external loads that were applied to PMHS.

Influences of human thorax variability on population rib fracture risk prediction using human body models.

Rib fractures remain a common injury for vehicle occupants in crashes. The risk of a human sustaining rib fractures from thorax loading is highly variable, potentially due to a variability in individual factors such as material properties and geometry of the ribs and ribcage. Human body models (HBMs) with a detailed ribcage can be used as occupant substitutes to aid in the prediction of rib injury risk at the tissue level in crash analysis.

Assessment of the sensitivity of thoracic injury criteria to subject-specific characteristics using human body models.

Chest deformation has been proposed as the best predictor of thoracic injury risk in frontal impacts. Finite Element Human Body Models (FE-HBM) can enhance the results obtained in physical crash tests with Anthropometric Test Devices (ATD) since they can be exposed to omnidirectional impacts and their geometry can be modified to reflect specific population groups. This study aims to assess the sensitivity of two thoracic injury risk criteria (PC Score and Cmax) to several personalization techniques of FE-HBMs.

Human Lumbar Spine Injury Risk in Dynamic Combined Compression and Flexion Loading.

Anticipating changes to vehicle interiors with future automated driving systems, the automobile industry recently has focused attention on crash response in novel postures with increased seatback recline. Prior research found that this posture may result in greater risk of lumbar spine injury in the event of a frontal crash. This study developed a lumbar spine injury risk function (IRF) that estimated injury risk as a function of simultaneously applied compression force and flexion moment.

Analysis of the spinal 3D motion of postmortem human surrogates in nearside oblique impacts.

The objective of this study is to analyze the 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) motion of the spine using the finite helical axis (FHA) in three postmortem human surrogates (PMHS) sled tests. The sled test configurations corresponded to a 30° nearside oblique impact at 35 km/h. Two different restraint system versions (RSv) were used.

Failure tolerance of the human lumbar spine in dynamic combined compression and flexion loading.

Vehicle safety systems have substantially decreased motor vehicle crash-related injuries and fatalities, but injuries to the lumbar spine still have been reported. Experimental and computational analyses of upright and, particularly, reclined occupants in frontal crashes have shown that the lumbar spine can be subjected to simultaneous and out-of-phase combined axial compression and flexion loading. Lumbar spine failure tolerance in combined compression-flexion has not been widely explored in the literature.

Assessment of in situ chest deflection of post mortem human subjects (PMHS) and personalized human body models (HBM) in nearside oblique impacts.

Objective: The present study has three objectives: First, to analyze the chest deflection measured in nearside oblique tests performed with three post mortem human subjects (PMHS). Second, to assess the capability of a HBM to predict the chest deflection sustained by the PMHS. Third to evaluate the influence on chest deflection prediction of subject-specific HBM.

Methodology to measure seat belt fit in relation to skeletal geometry using an upright open MRI.

Objective: Poor seat belt fit can result in submarining behavior and injuries to the lower extremity and abdomen. While previous studies have explored seat belt fit relative to skeletal landmarks using palpation, medical imaging remains the gold standard for visualizing and locating skeletal landmarks and soft tissues. The goal of this study was to create a method to image automotive postures and seat belt fit from the pelvis to the clavicle using an Upright Open MRI.

Evaluation of a diverse population of morphed human body models for prediction of vehicle occupant crash kinematics.

Morphing can be used to alter human body models (HBMs) to represent a diverse population of occupants in car crashes. The mid-sized male SAFER HBM v9 was parametrically morphed to match 22 Post Mortem Human Subjects, loaded in different configurations. Kinetics and kinematics were compared for the morphed and baseline HBMs.

Rib Cortical Bone Fracture Risk as a Function of Age and Rib Strain: Updated Injury Prediction Using Finite Element Human Body Models.

To evaluate vehicle occupant injury risk, finite element human body models (HBMs) can be used in vehicle crash simulations. HBMs can predict tissue loading levels, and the risk for fracture can be estimated based on a tissue-based risk curve. A probabilistic framework utilizing an age-adjusted rib strain-based risk function was proposed in 2012.

Sensitivity of scale factor choice on injury response for equal-stress equal-velocity scaling.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the assumption of geometric similitude inherent to equal-stress equal-velocity scaling by determining if scale factors created with different anthropometry metrics result in different scaled injury tolerance predictions. This assumption will be evaluated when equal-stress equal-velocity scaling is employed across dissimilar (e.g.

PMHS and WorldSID Kinematic and Injury Response in Far-Side Events in a Vehicle-Based Test Environment.

Far-side kinematics and injury are influenced by the occupant environment. The goal of the present study was to evaluate in-vehicle human far-side kinematics, kinetics and injury and to assess the ability of the WorldSID to represent them. A series of tests with five Post-Mortem Human Subjects and the WorldSID were conducted in a vehicle-based sled test environment.

Generic finite element models of human ribs, developed and validated for stiffness and strain prediction - To be used in rib fracture risk evaluation for the human population in vehicle crashes.

To enable analysis of the risk of occupants sustaining rib fractures in a crash, generic finite element models of human ribs, one through twelve, were developed. The generic ribs representing an average sized male, were created based on data from several sources and publications. The generic ribs were validated for stiffness and strain predictions in anterior-posterior bending.