Development of a device to increase the protection of vulnerable road users in the case of impact against heavy vehicles

The protection of vulnerable road users in urban traffic is nowadays a major issue in vehicle construction. Numerical techniques to perform virtual tests are of great help in dealing with these vehicle design problems. The objective of this research is the selection of an optimal configuration for a pedestrian protection system based on the adaptive surfaces in Heavy Vehicles (HV). These adaptive surfaces can be an add-on solution for the front grille and bumper, and are moved by means of actuators in pre-impact situations. A numerical multibody model has been developed with MADYMO code to simulate a 30 km/h truck-pedestrian impact. This model has been used to set-up a full factorial plan with three variables in order to reduce the possible biological damage to the pedestrian. The damage risk is evaluated by means of the Head Injury Criterion (HIC). The optimal solution with respect to the three variables has been determined by means of a regression model.