OBJECTIVE Traumatic rupture of thoracic aorta (TRA) was reported in the literature to be a major cause of death in motor vehicle crashes. This study aims at evaluating the most relevant risk factors of TRA. It also aims at analyzing the types of TRA as a function of car crash conditions and rib cage fractures. METHODS In-depth crash data collected from 1998 to 2006 as part of the Co-operative...

OBJECTIVE A 3-phase real-world motor vehicle crash (MVC) reconstruction method was developed to analyze injury variability as a function of precrash occupant position for 2 full-frontal Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) cases. METHOD Phase I: A finite element (FE) simplified vehicle model (SVM) was developed and tuned to mimic the frontal crash characteristics of the CIREN...

1 I n t r o d u c t i o n Safety measures like airbags and safety belts are nowadays commonly applied to improve the crash worthiness of road vehicles. Many governments stimulate or oblige by law car producers to include these devices in the vehicle design. Maximum values are imposed on parameters that quantitatively describe the severity of injuries. Examples are the Head Injury Criterion (HIC...

Frontal impacts are the most frequent crash types and may generate extreme body in white (BIW) deformations. Vehicles subjected to impact evaluation rating protocols such as 100 % Front Rigid Barrier (FRB) impact, 40 Offset Deformable (ODB) 25 overlap (small overlap) impact. This paper proposes a collaborative optimization process using optimal Latin hypercube design (Opt LHD) response surface ...

From clinical knowledge, it has been established that hepatic traumas frequently lead to lethal injuries. In frontal or lateral crash situations, these injuries can be induced by pure deceleration effects or blunt trauma due to belt or steering wheel impact. Concerning the liver under frontal decelerations, how could one investigate organ behaviour leading to the injury mechanisms? This work co...

Automotive manufacturers rely on rigorous testing and simulations to construct their vehicles durable safe in all aspects. One such vital factor is crash safety, otherwise known as crashworthiness. Crash tests are conventional forms of non-destructive methods validate the vehicle for its crashworthiness compatibility based different operating conditions. The frontal impact test most primary for...

A 22-year-old man died following a side impact blow in an automobile accident. Necropsy showed a large tear in the posterior wall of the aorta approximately 12 mm distal to the insertion of ligamentum arteriosum (Figures 1 and 2). Subadventitial hemorrhage was prominent in the descending thoracic aorta. Th e left pleural space contained large quantities of blood. Traumatic aortic rupture is the...

Bumper beams and crash boxes are structural vehicle elements that have very critical functions during frontal collisions. This study examined the energy ab-sorbed by front bumper system reaction forces to cage structure representing cabin frame a full against rigid wall. For this purpose, 25 different analyses were conducted using ANSYS software changing sheet thickness values of beam (t1) boxe...

A finite element (FE) model of a 1998 Audi Model A8 has been developed for the crash analysis associated with the NHTSA NCAP program. The AUDI model A8 is an all aluminum four-door passenger vehicle; it is classified as a ‘large sedan’ car. The model developed is to be used to analyze frontal impact against a rigid barrier as specified in standard procedures associated with the assessment of pa...

Recent epidemiological studies have identified ambulances as high risk passenger transport vehicles, particularly the rear compartment. It appears in the absence of USA ambulance safety standards or guidelines, non engineer end-users are driving changes in practice and policy in place of independent peer reviewed biomechanical and crash injury outcome data. This study’s objective is to compare ...