Development of a New Biofidelic Leg for Use with a Pedestrian Dummy

A new mechanical leg has been designed and developed for use in impact tests simulating pedestrian accidents. The leg has been developed to be part of a new, 50th percentile male pedestrian dummy called Polar. The leg incorporates a knee that has the essential anthropomorphic features of a 50th percentile male knee and a deformable tibia. The leg has been designed to be biofidelic under lateral impact. The knee possesses a human-like geometry that includes the femoral condyles and the tibial plateau. The four principal ligaments, namely, the posterior cruciate, anterior cruciate, the lateral collateral and the medial collateral are included along with a deformable meniscus. The tibia includes a deformable section that provides compliance during lateral loading. The femur and ankle were redesigned to attach to the knee and tibia respectively, and to a standard Hybrid III foot and femur ball joint. The leg is instrumented with two 5-axis load cells at the distal femur and proximal tibia and a 4axis load cell at the base of the tibia. This paper will present the results of component impact tests performed on the knee and compare them with Post Mortem Human Subject (PMHS) data presented by Kajzer, et al [1997]. In addition, this paper will present results from static and dynamic component tests conducted on the tibia and compare them with PMHS data presented by Yamada [1970] and Nyquist [1985].