A Study of the Effect of the Front-End Styling of Sport Utility Vehicles on Pedestrian Head Injuries

BACKGROUND: The number of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) on China market is continuously increasing. It is necessary to investigate the relationships between the front-end styling features of SUVs and head injuries at the styling design stage for improving the pedestrian protection performance and product development efficiency. METHODS: Styling feature parameters were extracted from the SUV side contour line. And simplified finite element models were established based on the 78 SUV side contour lines. Pedestrian headform impact simulations were performed and validated. The head injury criterion of 15 ms (HIC(15)) at four wrap-around distances was obtained. A multiple linear regression analysis method was employed to describe the relationships between the styling feature parameters and the HIC(15) at each impact point. RESULTS: The relationship between the selected styling features and the HIC(15) showed reasonable correlations, and the regression models and the selected independent variables showed statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: The regression equations obtained by multiple linear regression can be used to assess the performance of SUV styling in protecting pedestrians' heads and provide styling designers with technical guidance regarding their artistic creations.