Crash Simulation in Pedestrian Protection

Within the European Union 8.500 pedestrians and cyclists are killed in traffic accidents per year; 290.000 are injured. This represents about 20 % of all people killed resp. injured in traffic accidents per year. In order to protect the weakest participant in traffic the European Union and European car manufacturers take efforts to improve vehicle’s pedestrian friendliness. The European Union will enact legislative measures concerning pedestrian protection in the year 2005, basing on the test procedures developed by EEVC and ACEA. Thus pedestrian protection is becoming a topic of increasing importance. Besides the integration of simulation into the process of developing a car’s front end using a component model, simulation offers additional possibilities to examine a car’s crash performance concerning pedestrian protection. For example simulation using a full dummy model allows to understand the kinematics of the human body when impacted by a car. Concerning the subsystem test according to EEVC and ACEA highly simplified models enable general examination in an early state of development when concrete boundaries are not given yet. The aim is to determine the influence various parameters have on the results for the subsystem tests in order to provide a tool in discussion with other departments and to work out guidelines for further car development.