Finite element analysis of cyclist lower limb response in car-bicycle accident

In car-bicycle accidents the lower limb is the most injured body part (Otte 1989). If the lower limb injuries do not lead to fatal issue, they can induce a long and expensive medical treatment. Therefore the present study is focused on the cyclist lower limb. A biofidelic FE model was used to simulate a car-bicycle collision test. The kinematics and accelerations of the numerical model were compared with the experimental data. The analysis was also extended to parameters (stress and strain levels) which gave further insight to the underlying injury mechanism.