Experimental validation of three-dimensional finite element model of pelvis-femur-soft tissue complex under side impact loading

An experimental validation with the pelvic bone or human cadaver has always been considered as a gold standard to assess the accuracy of the finite element predictions. The present study provides an approach in mechanical testing of pelvic bone and human cadaver under side impact load for the purpose of validating the previously developed finite element models of pelvis-femur complex and pelvis-femur-soft tissue complex, respectively. An experimental setup was designed and developed, instrumented with miniature piezoelectric load cell and miniature charge amplifier. PC based data acquisition system was used to record the impact force-time data. The support conditions of the experiments were applied on the finite element model and simulated under similar impact load. Considering all the load cases with pelvic bone and human cadaver, high correlation (r² = 0.966) and significance level (p < 0.0001) were obtained between the experimental and finite element results. It strongly suggests that the numerical results calculated by the finite element models could be used as a valid predictor of the actual results.

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