title: Pedestrian lower limb injury criteria evaluation: a finite element approach.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In pedestrian traumas, lower limb injuries occur under lateral shearing and bending at the knee joint level. One way to improve injury mechanisms description and consequently knee joint safety is to evaluate the ultimate shearing and bending levels at which ligaments start being injured.
  
  
  METHODS
  As such data cannot easily and accurately be recorded clinically or during experiments, we show in this article how numerical simulation can be used to estimate such thresholds. This work was performed with the Lower Limb Model for Safety (LLMS) in pure lateral bending and shearing conditions, with an extended range of impact velocities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One result concerns the ultimate knee lateral bending angle and shearing displacement measurements for potential failure of ligaments (posterior cruciate, medial collateral, anterior cruciates and tibial collateral). They were evaluated to be close to 16 degrees and 15 mm, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The lower leg model used in this study is an advanced FE model of the lower limb, validated under various situations. Its accurate anatomical description allows a wide range of applications. According to the validity domain of the model, it offered a valuable tool for the numerical evaluation of potential injuries and the definition of injury risk criterion for knee joint.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biomécanique Appliquée, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France. pierre-jean.arnoux@inrets.fr
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Arnoux
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cesari
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Behr
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Thollon
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brunet
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D001336:Automobiles; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000503:physiopathology*; D035002:Lower Extremity; D008297:Male