Evaluation of chest injury mechanisms in nearside oblique frontal impacts

Despite the use of seat belts and modern safety systems, many automobile occupants are still seriously injured or killed in car crashes. Common configurations in these crashes are oblique and small overlap frontal impacts that often lead to chest injuries.To evaluate the injury mechanism in these oblique impacts, an investigation was carried out using mathematical human body model simulations. A model of a simplified vehicle interior was developed and validated by means of mechanical sled tests with the Hybrid III dummy. The interior model was then combined with the human body model THUMS and validated by means of mechanical PMHS sled tests. Occupant kinematics as well as rib fracture patterns were predicted with reasonable accuracy.The final model was updated to conform to modern cars and a simulation matrix was run. In this matrix the boundary conditions, ΔV and PDOF, were varied and rib fracture risk as a function of the boundary conditions was evaluated using a statistical framework.In oblique frontal impacts, two injury producing mechanisms were found; (i) diagonal belt load and (ii) side structure impact. The second injury mechanism was found for PDOFs of 25°-35°, depending on ΔV. This means that for larger PDOFs, less ΔV is needed to cause a serious chest injury.