[Development of a lower limb model for the study of accident sequelae of vehicle-pedestrian collisions]

A major goal of the development and associated experimental investigation of car bumpers is the minimization of injuries in car-to-pedestrian collisions. Because the lower leg is particularly prone to injuries in a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian, a lower leg model has been developed that makes it possible to simulate most of the processes occurring during an injury. In cooperation with the Institut für Biomedizinische Technik (Institute for Biomedical Technology) of the University of Stuttgart and the Kunststofflabor des Fachbereiches für Produktionstechnik (Institute for Production Methods) of the Fachhochschule für Technik (Polytech) Esslingen, a muscle tissue model has been designed that makes it possible to simulate in a first approximation the mechanical behaviour of biological tissue under accident-specific pressure, or in the case of a crush injury. Initial prototypes were built with bone models of the tibia and fibula and with a skin model whose relevant material parameters were taken from the literature.