Pedestrian Protection: Use of LS-DYNA to Influence Styling and Engineering

This paper describes the use of LS-DYNA for pedestrian protection analysis. A testing procedure has been documented, that may form the basis of proposed future legislation in Europe. Testing is already carried out regularly as part of the European New Car Assessment Program. Large-scale changes in current styling and engineering practices are needed to pass the tests; often, such changes can be accommodated only if identified at concept or pre-concept stage. This paper includes validation of the impacter device models and illustration of their use in establishing design concept guidelines at a non-product-specific level. The limitations imposed on styling are potentially onerous, and are discussed in the paper.