A fast methodology for generating skeletal FEM with detailed human geometric features based on CPD and RBF algorithms.

Due to the significant effects of the human anatomical characteristics on the injury mechanism of passenger in traffic accidents, it is necessary to develop human body FEM (Finite Element Model) with detailed anatomical characteristics. However, traditional development of a human body FEM is an extremely complicated process. In particular, the meshing of human body is a huge and time-consuming project. In this paper, a new fast methodology based on CPD (Coherent Point Drift) and RBF (Radial Basis Function) was proposed to achieve the rapid developing the FEM of human bone with detailed anatomical characteristics. In this methodology, the mesh morphing technology based the RBF was used to generate FEM mesh in the geometry extracted from the target CT (Computed Tomography) data. In order to further improve the accuracy and speed of mesh morphing, the target geometric feature points required in the mesh morphing process were realized via the rapid and automatic generation based on the point-cloud registration technology of the CPD algorithm. Finally, this new methodology was used to generate a 3-year-old ribcage FEM consisting of a total of 27,728 elements with mesh size 3-5 mm based on the THUMS (Total Human Model for Safety) adult model. In the entire process of generating this new ribcage model, it only took about 2.7 s. The average error between the new FEM and target geometries was only about 2.7 mm. This indicated that the new FEM well described the detailed anatomical characteristics of target geometry, thus importantly revealing that the mesh quality of the new FEM was basically similar to that of source FEM.

A study on the cyclist head kinematic responses in electric-bicycle-to-car accidents using decision-tree model.

Due to the high frequent traffic accidents involving electric bicycles (E-bike), it urgently needs improved protection of cyclists, especially their heads. In this study, by adjusting the initial impact velocities of E-bike and car, initial impact angle between E-bike and car, initial E-bike impact location, and body size of cyclist, 1512 different accident conditions were constructed and simulated using a verified E-bike-to-car impact multi-body model. The cyclist's head kinematic responses including the head relative impact velocity, WAD (Wrap around distance) of head impact location and HIC15 (15 ms Head Injury Criterion) were collected from simulation results to make up a dataset for data mining. The decision tree models of cyclist's head kinematic responses were then created from this dataset and verified accordingly. Based on simulated results obtained from decision tree models, it can be found as follows. 1. In the E-bike-to-car accidents, the average head impact relative velocity and WAD of head impact location are higher than those in the car-to-pedestrian accidents. 2. Increasing the initial impact velocity of car can increase the cyclist's head relative impact velocity, WAD of head impact location, and HIC15. 3. The WAD of cyclist's head impact location is also significantly affected by the initial impact angle between E-bike and car and body size of cyclist: the WAD of head impact location becomes higher with increasing initial impact angle between E-bike and car and body size of cyclist. 4. The effects of initial E-bike impact location on the WAD of cyclist's head impact location is not significant when initial E-bike impact location is concentrated in the region of 0.25 m around the centerline of the car.

Study on the Long Bone Failure Behaviors Under the Indenter Rigid-Contact by Experiment Analysis and Subject-Specific Simulation.

The bending fracture behaviors of long bone have gained great attention due to the high bending fracture risk during sports events, traffic accidents, and falling incidents, etc. For evaluating bone bending behaviors, most of the previous studies used an indenter in three point bending experiments while the effect of its rigidity was never considered. In this work, using the porcine long bones, the three point bending tests were conducted to explore the bone fracture behaviors under a rigid indenter. In addition to collecting the force applied, the bone fracture dynamic process was recorded by high-speed photography, and the fracture surface profile in mesoscale was observed by the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Based on CT scanning of long bones, the cross section properties of test specimens were calculated by a homemade matlab script for correlating with their failure strengths. Also, a subject-specific finite element (FE) model was developed to identify the outcomes induced by a rigid indenter on simulation. Findings led to conclusions as follows: (1) The tension fracture came with fracture path deflection, which was caused by the bone indentation induced mesoscale crack-opening. Due to this damage before the whole bone fracture, a bone fracture moment correction was established to compensate experimental data. (2) The plastic indentation caused the force fluctuation as suggested by correlation analysis. (3) The bone failure moment correlated with the inertial moment of the bone cross section at the fracture location higher than the traditional cross section area. (4) In the subject-specific simulation, the indentation caused compression fracture under a much lower failure force. Removing the element erosion on the indenter-contacted area only during the validation was verified as a good option to solve this issue.

Development of Test Equipment for Pedestrian-Automatic Emergency Braking Based on C-NCAP (2018).

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of a pedestrian-automatic emergency braking (PAEB) system on pedestrian protection, a set of PAEB test equipment was developed according to the test requirement of China-New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP) (2018) in this study. In the aspect of system control strategy, global positioning system (GPS) differential positioning was used to achieve the required measurement and positioning accuracy, the collaborative control between the PAEB test equipment and automated driving robot (ADR) was achieved by wireless communication, and the motion state of the dummy target in the PAEB system was controlled by using the S-shaped-curve velocity control method. Part of the simulations and field tests were conducted according to the scenario requirements specified in C-NCAP (2018). The experimental and simulated results showed that the test equipment demonstrated high accuracy and precision in the process of testing, the dummy target movement was smooth and stable, complying with the requirements of PAEB tests set forth in C-NCAP (2018), and yielding satisfactory results as designed. Subsequently, the performance of the AEB of a vehicle under test (VUT) was conducted and the score for star-rating to evaluate the performance level of AEB calculated. Results indicated the developed test equipment in this study could be used to evaluate the performance of the PAEB system with effectiveness.

A study on cyclist head injuries based on an electric-bicycle to car accident reconstruction.

OBJECTIVE: In China, the electric-bicycle (E-bike) has become one of the most common modes of travel. However, the safety of E-bike has not received sufficient attentions, especially in the area of protection of the cyclists' head. METHODS: In this study, an E-bike-to-car accident was reconstructed using MADYMO and LS-DYNA software and head injuries of the cyclist were analyzed. A multi-rigid body model in MADYMO and a head to windshield impact finite element (FE) model using LS-DYNA were separately developed to achieve objectives of the work. RESULTS: Kinematic responses of the cyclist were predicted by the multi-rigid body model to obtain the best reconstructed results compared to those given in the accident report, and the instantaneous linear and angular relative velocities at the onset of contact between the head and windshield, which were used as input loading conditions to the FE model, were obtained. The maximum principal strain (MPS) of skull, and intracranial pressure (ICP), von-Mises stress and MPS (Maximum principal strain) of brain tissue were predicted by the FE model for the head injuries analyses. CONCLUSIONS: The results of accident reconstruction in this study case showed that: (1) The head impact region on the windshield in the E-bike-to-car impact accidents is higher than that in the pedestrian-to-car impact accidents. (2) The skull MPS, ICP, von-Mises stress and MPS of strain can accurately predict the head injury risk, location, etc. (3) The directly impact force caused the skull fracture, and the tensile inertial force torn bridge vein resulting in the subdural hematoma on the opposite side of impact in this accident. (4) The models developed in this study were validated against the reconstructed accident and can be used for further study on head injuries of E-bike's cyclist and helmet design.

Porcine growth plate experimental study and estimation of human pediatric growth plate properties.

Growth plate (GP) is a type of tissue widely found in child's immature skeleton. It may have significant influence on the overall injury pattern since it has distinguishing mechanical properties compared to the surrounding bony tissue. For more accurate material modeling and advanced pediatric human body modeling, it is imperative to investigate the material property of GPs in different loading conditions. In this study, a series of tensile and shearing experiments on porcine bone-GP-bone units were carried out. Total 113 specimens of bone-GP-bone unit from the femoral head, distal femur, and proximal tibia of four 20-weeks-old piglets were tested, under different strain rates (average 0.0053 to 1.907 s-1 for tensile tests, and 0.0085 to 3.037 s-1 for shearing tests). Randomized block ANOVA was conducted to determine the effects of anatomic region and strain rate on the material properties of GPs. It was found that, strain rate is a significant factor for modulus and ultimate stress for both tensile and shearing tests; the ultimate strains are not sensitive to the input factors in both tensile and shearing tests; the GPs at knee region could be grouped due to similar properties, but statistically different from the femoral head GP. Additionally, the tensile test data from the experimental study were comparing to the limited data obtained from tests on human subjects reported in the literature. An optimal conversion factor was derived to correlate the material properties of 20-week-old piglet GPs and 10 YO child GPs. As a result, the estimated material properties of 10 YO child GPs from different regions in different loading conditions became available given the conversion law stays legitimate. These estimated material properties for 10 YO child GPs were reported in the form of tensile and shearing stress-strain curves and could be subsequently utilized for human GP tissue material modeling and child injury mechanism studies.

A theoretical analysis of stress wave propagation in the head under primary blast loading.

Traumatic brain injury due to primary blast loading has become a signature injury in recent military conflicts. Efforts have been made to study the stress wave propagation in the head. However, the relationship of incident pressure, reflected pressure and intracranial pressure is still not clear, and the experimental findings reported in the literature are contradictory. In this article, an analytical model is developed to calculate the stress wave transfer through a multiple-layered structure which is used to mimic the head. The model predicts stress at the scalp-skull and skull-brain interfaces as the functions of reflected pressure, which is further dependent on incident pressure. A numerical model is used to corroborate the theoretical predictions. It is concluded that scalp has an amplification effect on intracranial pressure. If scalp is absent, there exists a critical incident pressure, defined as P cr at approximately 16 kPa. When peak incident pressure σ in is higher than 16 kPa, the pressure at the skull-brain interface is greater than σ in; otherwise, it is lower than σ in.

A numerical investigation of factors affecting cervical spine injuries during rollover crashes.

STUDY DESIGN: Factors affecting the risk of cervical spine injury in rollover crashes were investigated using a detailed finite element human head-neck model. OBJECTIVE: Analyze systematically neck responses and associated injury predictors under complex loading conditions similar to real-world rollover scenarios and use the findings to identify potential design improvements. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Although many previous experimental and numerical studies have focused on cervical spine injury mechanisms and tolerance, none of them have investigated the risk of cervical spine injuries under loading condition similar to that in rollovers. METHODS: The effects of changing the coefficient of friction (COF), impact velocity, padding material thickness and stiffness, and muscle force on the risk of neck injuries were analyzed in 16 different impact orientations based on a Taguchi array of design of experiments. RESULTS: Impact velocity is the most important factor in determining the risk of cervical spine fracture (P = 0.000). Decreases in the COF between the head and impact surface can effectively reduce the risk of cervical spine fracture (P = 0.038). If the COF is not 0, an impact with lateral force component could sometimes increase the risk of cervical spine fracture; and the larger the oriented angle of the impact surface, the more important it becomes to reduce the COF to protect the neck. Soft (P = 0.033) and thick (P = 0.137) padding can actually decrease the neck fracture risk, which is in contrast to previous experimental data. CONCLUSION: A careful selection of proper padding stiffness and thickness, along with a minimized COF between the head and impact surface or between the padding and its supporting structure, may simultaneously decrease the risk of head and neck injuries during rollover crashes. A seatbelt design to effectively reduce/eliminate the head-to-roof impact velocity is also very crucial to enhance the neck protection in rollovers.

A weighted logistic regression analysis for predicting the odds of head/face and neck injuries during rollover crashes.

A weighted logistic regression with careful selection of crash, vehicle, occupant and injury data and sequentially adjusting the covariants, was used to investigate the predictors of the odds of head/face and neck (HFN) injuries during rollovers. The results show that unbelted occupants have statistically significant higher HFN injury risks than belted occupants. Age, number of quarter-turns, rollover initiation type, maximum lateral deformation adjacent to the occupant, A-pillar and B-pillar deformation are significant predictors of HFN injury odds for belted occupants. Age, rollover leading side and windshield header deformation are significant predictors of HFN injury odds for unbelted occupants. The results also show that the significant predictors are different between head/face (HF) and neck injury odds, indicating the injury mechanisms of HF and neck injuries are different.

Development of numerical models for injury biomechanics research: a review of 50 years of publications in the Stapp Car Crash Conference.

Numerical analyses frequently accompany experimental investigations that study injury biomechanics and improvements in automotive safety. Limited by computational speed, earlier mathematical models tended to simplify the system under study so that a set of differential equations could be written and solved. Advances in computing technology and analysis software have enabled the development of many sophisticated models that have the potential to provide a more comprehensive understanding of human impact response, injury mechanisms, and tolerance. In this article, 50 years of publications on numerical modeling published in the Stapp Car Crash Conference Proceedings and Journal were reviewed. These models were based on: (a) author-developed equations and software, (b) public and commercially available programs to solve rigid body dynamic models (such as MVMA2D, CAL3D or ATB, and MADYMO), and (c) finite element models. A clear trend that can be observed is the increasing use of the finite element method for model development. A review of these modeling papers clearly indicates the progression of the state-of-the-art in computational methods and technologies in injury biomechanics.

Structural Response of Lower Leg Muscles in Compression: A Low Impact Energy Study Employing Volunteers, Cadavers and the Hybrid III.

Little has been reported in the literature on the compressive properties of muscle. These data are needed for the development of finite element models that address impact of the muscles, especially in the study of pedestrian impact. Tests were conducted to characterize the compressive response of muscle. Volunteers, cadaveric specimens and a Hybrid III dummy were impacted in the posterior and lateral aspect of the lower leg using a free flying pendulum. Volunteer muscles were tested while tensed and relaxed. The effects of muscle tension were found to influence results, especially in posterior leg impacts. Cadaveric response was found to be similar to that of the relaxed volunteer. The resulting data can be used to identify a material law using an inverse method.