Abstract: A subsystem impactor test for pedestrian lower limb injury evaluation has been brought in China New Car Assessment Protocol (CNCAP). Concerning large anthropometric differences of the people from different countries, the present study aims to establish and validate a finite element lower limb model representing 50th Chinese male size for pedestrian safety research, then compare its biomechanical responses with the general models currently in wide use in the world for pedestrian safety evaluation. Concerning the vehicle-pedestrian impact loading environment, the previously developed lower limb model with three-dimensional muscles was adjusted and validated through the related experiments. Then, the biomechanical responses of the validated model were compared with the Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) and Advanced Pedestrian Legform Impactor (aPLI) models by combing with four typical vehicles. The results showed that both consistency and significant differences of biomechanical responses existed between the present model and the other two models. The injury measurements of the thigh region of the present model showed extremely large differences with the other two models, while the tibia and Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) injury measurements show similar values. Thus, it can be concluded that directly using the aPLI or THUMS models for Chinese pedestrian safety evaluation is not robust concerning both kinematic responses and injury measurements.

Key words: lower limb, injury biomechanics, human body modeling, pedestrian safety, finite element analysis