The effect of car types on head injuries of Vietnamese pedestrians using dummy in crashes

Abstract Simulation for crashworthiness has been widely applied recently due to its cost-effectiveness and viability with pedestrians who are always suffer serious injury. Reducing traffic accident numbers, and fatalities in severe accidents is always a huge concern of the government in Vietnam. This research focused on numerical simulation using finite element dummy model to study head injuries in a Vietnamese pedestrian suffered crash accidents at center position with three car types: (Sedan, SUV, and Pick-up). V-dummy which is suitable for Vietnamese anthropometric properties is used for this research. V-dummy is created by scaling from the Hybrid III dummy. The initial speeds of the vehicles are set at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 (km/h) and the impact angles are set at 0°, 45°, and 90°. There are forty-five simulation cases in total presented in this paper. Head injuries are determined by assessing the HIC (Head Injury Criterion) for every cases. Result shows that HIC increases with respect to velocity and varies with the impact angle. When V-dummy is in impact, the head will have a tendency to hit the windshield or the bonnet first (named phase of car impact) then it gets knocked up airborne before struck to the ground (named phase of ground impact). The location of the head impact on the car depends on the type of vehicle and the impact angle. The HIC value is increased together with the impact speed. For the impact case at 90°, the shoulder first and then the head are in contact with the bonnet, which causes HIC in impact angle 90° lower than both 0° and 45°.