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Updated: Jul 15, 2026
A Test Bed to Examine Helmet Fit and Retention and Biomechanical Measures of Head and Neck Injury in Simulated Impact
Published on: September 21, 2017
Cadaver-test-based validation of a pedestrian-ground injury protection method and mechanism analysis of braking
Tiefang Zou1, Yapeng Zhang1, Zhiqi Liu1
1School of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, China.
Objectives:
Insufficient validation of simulation tools and protection methods, as well as inadequate understanding of protection mechanisms, exists in pedestrian-ground contact injury research. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the PC-Crash pedestrian model in predicting pedestrian motion and ground contact after a vehicle impact.
Methods:
Six cadaver tests were reconstructed while a braking control method was applied to verify the effectiveness of the pedestrian-ground contact injury protection method. The change in pedestrian energy in full and controlled braking cases was compared and analyzed to reveal the mechanism of pedestrian-ground contact injury reduction.
Results:
The PC-Crash 2014 pedestrian model not only accurately reconstructed the pedestrian kinematic response but also reconstructed pedestrian injury with high accuracy. The mean error of HIC for vehicle and ground contact was only 6.07% and 5.85%, respectively. Reasonably controlling the vehicle braking can reduce ground-related HIC by up to 87.65% on average without increasing vehicle contact injury.
Conclusions:
The direct reason why controlled braking reduces pedestrian-ground contact injuries is that it changes the pedestrian ground contact mechanism. The essential reason is that the change in ground contact mechanism extends the head buffer time, thus reducing the energy absorbed by the pedestrian's head when it comes into direct contact with the ground. The study's findings not only provide tools for future pedestrian-ground injury research but also improve the understanding of pedestrian-ground contact injury protection methods, which is significant.
