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Globally, Vehicle Frontal Protection Systems (VFPS) need to satisfy pedestrian safety crash test requirements. In Australia, the existing designs of VFPS do not consider pedestrian safety due to an absence of pertinent regulatory requirements. This paper develops a design and validation framework for a new pedestrian-friendly concept of VFPS, which is in demand to meet global lower legfrom pedestrian safety requirements. The design and crash test simulations are carried out in Finite Element Analysis (FEA) program LS-DYNA. A physical crash test under the Euro NCAP Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) lower legform test condition is conducted to confirm the new VFPS design. It has been found the computer simulation results based on the new VFPS design agree with the results obtained by the experiment, satisfying Euro NCAP performance requirements. A Flexble Pedestrian Legform Impactor (Flex-PLI) model is further evaluated on the validated design, which also produces satisfactory predictions for future pedestrian safety testings.

Finite Element Analysis, Vehicle Frontal Protection System, Pedestrian safety, Pedestrian protection, Lower legform, TRL legform, Flex-PLI legform