Influence of Neck Dynamic Response on Head Injuries in Passenger Car to Pedestrian Collisions

The objective of the present study was to analyze the influences of neck kinematics on head-brain injuries in pedestrian head-to-windshield impact. Firstly, a real-world pedestrian head-to-windshield accident was reconstructed using Madymo. Secondly, the validated finite element (FE) head models with and without neck were used to compute the head-brain injury related parameters. The initial impact conditions of FE models were obtained from Madymo reconstructions. The head-brain injury parameters were calculated in terms of coup/countrecoup pressure, von Mises and maximum shear stresses. It appeared that in this case head with neck model had higher maximum values of four injury parameters than head without neck model. And neck influence on head angular acceleration was significant.