Design of a bumper system for pedestrian lower-leg protection using the Taguchi method

The main aim of this study is to design a bumper system which is capable of lessening the possibility of pedestrian lower-extremity injuries in car-pedestrian collisions. The current pedestrian safety regulation recognized by most countries worldwide is to apply a lower-legform impactor to assess the lower-extremity injuries during impact. Therefore, a numerical pedestrian lower-legform impactor is developed based on the finite element method to evaluate the bumper safety in the study. Five design parameters for the bumper system, according to the stiffness and geometry of the energy absorber and the bumper beam, are selected to demonstrate this design strategy. The sensitivities of these design parameters are analysed by means of the Taguchi method to reduce the leg injuries of a pedestrian based on impact tests defined by the European Enhanced Vehicle-Safety Committee (EEVC). Consequently, the optimal combination is attained, and the result satisfies the EEVC criteria on the protection of a pedestrian from leg injury.