Development and validation of an FE model for motorcycle–car crash test simulations

In the development process of new solutions for rider protection, finite element (FE) simulations of motorcycle to car crashes represent a way to reduce costs and time. This paper focuses on the development and validation of an FE virtual environment for complete crash test scenarios and its use to evaluate the head and neck injuries. Models are validated through comparison of numerical and experimental data and, aiming at performing quantitative analyses, a new approach (named injury rating) for injury evaluation is proposed. The virtual environment is applied, as test case, to the simulation of eight crash scenarios selected from the ISO 13232 standard. The results are presented and discussed to demonstrate the potentialities of the approach in designing new rider protective devices.