Full-Scale Validation of Modified Pedestrian Dummy 2023-01-0786

Injury assessment by using a whole-body pedestrian dummy is one of the ways to investigate pedestrian safety performance of vehicles. The authors’ group has improved the biofidelity of the lower limb and the pelvis of the mid-sized male pedestrian dummy (POLAR III) by modifying those components. This study aims to evaluate the biofidelity of the whole-body response of the modified dummy in full-scale impact tests.

The pelvis, the thigh and the leg of POLAR III have been modified in a past study by optimizing their compliance by means of the installation of plastic and rubber parts, which were used for the tests. The generic buck developed for the assessment of pedestrian dummy whole-body impact response and specified in SAE J3093 was used for this study. The buck representing the geometry of a small family car is comprised of six parts: lower bumper, bumper, grille, hood edge, hood and windshield. Tests were performed by conforming to SAE J2782 that specifies test conditions to evaluate the performance of a mid-sized male pedestrian research dummy. The buck was made to collide with the pedestrian dummy on its right side at 40 km/h. The trajectory of the head, upper spine, mid-thorax and pelvis and the time history of the head velocity were measured and compared with the requirements specified in SAE J2782. In addition, the test results were quantitatively assessed using the ranking method proposed by a past study.

The trajectories of the landmarks along with the time histories of the head velocity generally showed a good match with the requirements specified in SAE J2782, except the trajectory of the pelvis. The biofidelity ranking parameters were rated as “excellent” or “good” using the proposed thresholds. The trajectory of the pelvis was further analyzed from the viewpoints of the structure of the dummy and the generic buck.