Research on Simulation and Reconstruction of Vehicle-pedestrian Collision Based on Multi-body Dynamics

Vehicle-pedestrian collision is a major type traffic accident in China, which has been attracted close attention by people because of its high fatality rate. However, it is difficult for traffic management department to reconstruct such kind of accident. In this paper, a methodology for simulation of vehicle-pedestrian accidents based on the multi-body dynamics is presented. A multi-body dummy pedestrian model is established based on PC-CRASH programs, the features that represent the different parts of the pedestrian are defined such as geometry, mass, contact stiffness and coefficients of friction. And more the model is introduced to simulate the collision in a real case of vehicle-pedestrian accident in Hangzhou. Different impact speeds are discussed to predict the different throwing distance of the pedestrian. The relation curves and equations between pedestrian's throwing distance and vehicle impact speed are established from regression analyses of the simulation data. Finally, the impact speed is estimated with correspond to the exact pedestrian throwing distance.