Lateral Impact Validation of a Geometrically Accurate Full Body Finite Element Model for Blunt Injury Prediction

This study presents four validation cases of a mid-sized male (M50) full human body finite element model—two lateral sled tests at 6.7 m/s, one sled test at 8.9 m/s, and a lateral drop test. Model results were compared to transient force curves, peak force, chest compression, and number of fractures from the studies. For one of the 6.7 m/s impacts (flat wall impact), the peak thoracic, abdominal and pelvic loads were 8.7, 3.1 and 14.9 kN for the model and 5.2 ± 1.1 kN, 3.1 ± 1.1 kN, and 6.3 ± 2.3 kN for the tests. For the same test setup in the 8.9 m/s case, they were 12.6, 6, and 21.9 kN for the model and 9.1 ± 1.5 kN, 4.9 ± 1.1 kN, and 17.4 ± 6.8 kN for the experiments. The combined torso load and the pelvis load simulated in a second rigid wall impact at 6.7 m/s were 11.4 and 15.6 kN, respectively, compared to 8.5 ± 0.2 kN and 8.3 ± 1.8 kN experimentally. The peak thorax load in the drop test was 6.7 kN for the model, within the range in the cadavers, 5.8–7.4 kN. When analyzing rib fractures, the model predicted Abbreviated Injury Scale scores within the reported range in three of four cases. Objective comparison methods were used to quantitatively compare the model results to the literature studies. The results show a good match in the thorax and abdomen regions while the pelvis results over predicted the reaction loads from the literature studies. These results are an important milestone in the development and validation of this globally developed average male FEA model in lateral impact.