Head impact modelling using MADYMO simulations of documented pedestrian accidents

Abstract

For the couple of non-specialists out there who may not know about MADYMO simulation. it is almost an acronym for mathematical dynamic modelling. (Slide 1) It is a software package involving a model of Newtonian physics with multi-body models. We give them geometric and inertial properties, which we can measure or create through other software packages. From that we can run the model through the computer in small time steps and simulate what is happening. We are using MADYMO software packages to simulate pedestrian accidents. Today I will show how this work fits in, the generic MADYMO model I have created and the validation performed on the model, and I will use an example to go through the reconstruction of a particular accident and talk about how we select the accidents we model. I will talk about our results and further simulations, including sensitivities to some of the variables we use. This paper is related to yesterday's paper on neuropathological injury and child pedestrians, and our work is closely related to that. In our case we put more effort into ensuring the head impact conditions are well understood, which is the emphasis of my presentation today.