Development of a Procedure to Compare Kinematics of Human Body Models for Pedestrian Simulations

As Human Body Models are gaining increasingly relevance for the purpose of rating safety performance, it is essential that they behave consistently. Therefore, an objective method to compare human body models is needed. In this study a procedure to compare objectively human body kinematics was developed. Representative generic vehicle models were developed to simulate relevant pedestrian impacts. In a sensitivity study key boundary conditions influencing the head trajectory and contact time - such as the initial posture of the human body model or contact settings- were determined. Based on that findings a standardised procedure was developed and applied by propelling four generic vehicles at three impact velocities (30, 40 and 50 km/h) against two human body models (THUMS AM50 v4.02 and GHBMC M50 PS v1.4) in LS-Dyna. Trajectories of selected bony landmarks, head contact time and contact forces between the vehicle and the human body model were compared. Applying the developed procedure, the two human body models showed very comparable results in terms of trajectories and contact forces which gives the authors confidence in the robustness of the procedure developed and the models used.