Effects of Vehicle Front Design Parameters on Pedestrian Head-brain Injury Protection

The objective of the present work is to determine the effect of the vehicle front design on pedestrian head impact responses and injury related parameters based on accident reconstructions and simulation analyses of carpedestrian impacts. The accident reconstructions were carried out using selected accident data from an in-depth study with headbrain injuries documented in accident and medical report. The correlations of the output parameters from reconstructions with the injuries described in medical and accident report were analyzed. The influences of vehicle front structures to pedestrian head-brain injuries were investigated by using computer simulations at varying impact speeds up to 60 km/h. The different sizes of models were used to represent the adult and child pedestrians, including 6, 9 years old children and 5th, 50th, 95th adults. The shapes of the vehicles were investigated and categorized by compact and large passenger cars, mini-van. The safer vehicle front design for pedestrian protection was analyzed and discussed with focus on the head impact velocity, head impact angle, location and timing of head impact for both adult and child pedestrians.