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Dynamic response of the pelvis under side impact load – a three-dimensional finite element approach

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1533/ijcr.2004.0274

1754-2111

Santanu Majumder, Amit Roychowdhury, Subrata Pal,

Spine and Intervertebral Disc Pathology

Abstract The pelvis is most susceptible to severe fractures in side impacts, arising from motor vehicle crashes. In recent years, car manufacturers are providing more importance to the protection of occupants in lateral impacts. This study was aimed to understand the dynamic response of the pelvis and establish its fracture threshold, using a three-dimensional finite element model, with 13,070 tetrahedral (trabecular bone) and 5,820 shell (cortical bone) elements through 3,704 nodes. These elements take care of bending stress due to out of plane loading. After a detailed modal analysis, thirty-eight load cases were simulated by varying the intensity of impact load, impact duration and density (i.e. inertia effect) of bones, with 65% of the body weight acting on the sacrum. It was observed that the failure threshold load was near 3 kN. With better design of car-door and hippad, if side impact force was brought down to 3 kN (approximately), then the peak stress (162 MPa at 5 ms of impact time to peak load), within the pelvis, would not exceed the average compressive strength for the cortical bone.