Abstract:

A mixed finite element (FE) dummy model was developed with precise neck muscle geometry as
well as active and passive muscle behavior to investigate neck injury mechanism with muscle activation in
front collision which is important to the design of occupant safety. The model was based on the 50th Hybrid III
dummy with the head and neck replaced by a well-validated biomechanical model. The data of volunteer trolley
collision experiments with a deceleration of 15g, conducted by US Navy Biomechanics Laboratory, was used for
model validation. The results show that the model has a good biofidelity, according to the outputs of head linear
acceleration, angular acceleration and rotational angles of head and neck compared to the volunteer tests.
Therefore, the model can be used to investigate the head-neck injury biomechanics in vehicle frontal impact
considering the activation behavior of neck muscle system.

Key words: vehicle safety, passive safety, frontal impact, biomechanics, head-neck finite element (FE) model, muscle activation, mixed dummy