Pedestrian crash – leg/front bumper analysis

Abstract

In the car industry, occupant safety has been in the spotlight of the media for some time already; a better EuroNCAP rating can make the difference between two competing models on the same market from the point of view of the customer. Not as well developed as occupant safety, pedestrian protection is becoming more and more a concern of both car manufacturers and European Governments. One of the reasons is the increasing number of accidents in which pedestrians are involved. This is why the number of requirements with which a car has to comply will increase in the following years, taking pedestrian protection to a higher level. This paper focuses on one specific type of crash in the pedestrian safety domain: legform - front bumper crash. For this purpose, a practical application of numerical simulation and an example of correlation with results of real tests will be presented in the following pages. The car model, which is used as an example, is the New Renault Laguna (2007)."