Comparing the Frontal Impact Responses of the VIVA+ Average Female and SAFER Average Male Human Body Models in a Generic Seat

The VIVA+ 50F average female Human Body Model (HBM), currently in early beta status, was compared to the SAFER average male HBM Version 9 with the aim of investigating differences between females and males in terms of kinematics and injury assessment in frontal impacts. The VIVA+ HBM is under development within the research project VIRTUAL and will be released as open source during the summer 2022. The comparison between the HBMs was carried out using LS-DYNA version R9.3.1 in a generic sled test interior consisting of a semi-rigid seat, a footwell and a pretensioned three-point belt system with 3.5 kN load limiter. The HBMs were positioned in a pre-simulation using spring and damper elements attached to target points estimated using an automobile driving posture prediction model from the literature. Subsequently, the HBMs were subjected to a frontal crash corresponding to an initial velocity of 50 km/h. Occupant kinematics were analyzed by comparing head, chest, and pelvis kinematics between the two models. Additionally, HIC15, rib peak strains, and upper neck, lumbar spine and pelvis anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) resultant forces were compared between the two models. The largest differences between SAFER HBM and the beta version of VIVA+ were found for rib peak strains, where VIVA+ predicts higher strain than SAFER HBM, and lumbar spine forces, where VIVA+ predicts lower forces than SAFER HBM. Furthermore, higher neck forces and ASIS forces were predicted by SAFER HBM compared to VIVA+.