Figure 14.

Components of a towing with a steered-trailer

Multibody-model

Figure 15. Pedestrian accident

General
In reality, a vehicle does not get significant damages during pedestrian accident because of its body stiffness. The
difference between a vehicles and a pedestrians weight is
large, thus the bigger damage and the higher change of
velocity are suffered by the pedestrian. This is the reason,

why Virtual Crash regards vehicles as rigid bodies and the

deformation of the vehicle is not taken into account is case
of a pedestrian accident.
Pedestrians have to be treated as multibody systems, because body elements can not move on independently. Vehicle pedestrian impacts can be simulated by means of
this multibody-model almost as easily as vehicle - vehicle
impacts are.
The model owns the regular properties that pedestrians
have such as size and weight. These parameters are variable according to the participant of an accident. Twelve different poses are available in Virtual Crash for the most
realistic reconstruction of pedestrian accidents. These are
the followings: standing (default), walking left or right leg
is in front, sitting in two poses, lying in two poses, leaning,
cyclist, motorcyclist, cat-pose, prayer-pose. Virtual Crash
takes the posture of the pedestrian into account as the
geometric shape of different vehicles.

Figure 16. Poses in Virtual Crash (walking left with raster, motorcyclist, lying pose)

Model Description
Multibody is a system of rigid bodies interconnected by
joints corresponding to humans. The parts of the body
(head, torso, arms, legs, etc.) are made of multi-degreehyper-ellipsoids. These are special ellipsoids with differ-

ent size-parameters and different degrees according to the

parts of the body. The degrees do not need to be integer
(whole number). The body elements are interconnected with
joints.
The general equation of the multi-degree-ellipsoid is the
following:
n

x y z
 
a b c

(60.)

a; b; c - the semi axes of the ellipsoid

x; y; z - variables
n

- the exponent (degree)

Note: In case of the exponent is n=2, the ellipsoid is a

sphere. If n=30, the figure is almost a cube with rounded
edges (Figure 17.).

n=2

n=30

Figure 17. The shapes of a hyper-ellipsoid

in case of different degree

For the most appropriate setting of a collision, there are

different variable properties such as static and dynamic
parameters that can be set before and during a simulation.
Static parameters are height, weight and posture parameters (pose, angular offset, height of the centre of gravity)

dynamic properties are coefficients of friction (between the

body and the ground; between the body and the causing
vehicle), coefficient of impact (k).
The dummy in the program includes 15 body elements
and 16 joints corresponding to human body. These are
head, neck, torso, waist, femurs, knees, lower legs, feet,
upper and lower arms, Joints are between parts according
to the reality.
Virtual Crash regards the human-body-model as a system
of these mentioned realistic shaped ellipsoids covered by a
surface that is made of triangles. These triangles can
change their size, according to interaction of the body elements (without any power impulse on one another).
The multibody system has a zero condition, when the
gravity force and the internal joint forces are in balance.
This is a state of equilibrium that lasts until the first external
impact. When a vehicle just push the dummy, this balance
does not last any longer and the external forces will only
affect the movement of the body elements.
Coordinate system
Two additional coordinate systems are applied in case of
a simulation involving a multibody model. One coordinate
system is the inertial system in with the dummy moves and
the second coordinate system is the body fixed coordinate
system that determines the position of the body parts. This
system is defined by the semi-axes of the ellipsoids. Both
coordinate systems are right hand coordinate systems. (Figure 18.)

Figure 18. Coordinate systems

about the multibody model

Body Properties
The following properties are generally and independently applied for the parts of the multibody system.
Geometry: Each element of the dummy is
represented by an ellipsoid and each has different exponents and axes corresponding to the dimensions of a human.
Weight and moments of inertia: The moments of inertia about the ellipsoids three axes and its mass
must be specified. The dimensions and the weight
are prescribed and can be variable and the moments of inertia are calculated from these parameters.
Coefficient of friction: Two coefficients of friction
can be specified. One is used for ellipsoid to vehicle contacts; the other is used for ellipsoid to ellipsoid and ellipsoid to ground contacts. These
coefficients of friction are assumed to be independent of the amount of penetration and used
for the calculation of contact forces

 Stiffness coefficients: There is one coefficients of

stiffness fot all of the parts of the multiboby system. It can be prescribed and variable during a
simulation as the friction coefficient is.
Equations of motion
There are some different external forces (gravity, contact
forces, frictional forces and joint forces) affecting the elements of the mulibody system in case of a simulation of a
pedestrian accident. These are calculated during each time
step. After the external forces are determined, the movement of each body is calculated independently by solving
the equations of motion.
Steps during the simulation of the multibody system
1. the calculations of contacts such as positions or
normal vectors
2. the calculation of Jacobi-determinant
3. the determination of conditions and the calculation
of forces
4. the application of forces to multibody system
5. the solution of the equations of motion
The parts of the Jakobi-determinant are the following:
Each condition has three rows within the determinant. The
first row contains the parameters of the contact planes direction while the second and third rows express the direction of tangential forces.
There is a relation between tangential and normal forces
that is used as a condition of the Jacobi-determinant:

FT  P FN

(61.)

The following equations are needed for the calculation of

the positions and forces about the multibody system:

J v

(62.)

( J M 1 J T ) U
F

C
dt

JT U

(63.)
(64.)

where the parameters are:

J
- the Jakobi-determinant
vi
- the velocity of the multybody parts
c
- constants
F
- the effecting forces

M
t

- the result
- the mass matrix
- the integration step

Equations of motion
The equations of motion consider the balance of forces,
the assumption of the conservation of angular momentum
and the influence of external forces and moments:

6 Fi

mi xi

6 M i

4 i Z i  Zi u 4 i Zi

4i

mi

I xx

 I xy
 I
xz

(65.)

 I xy
I yy
 I yz

 I xz

 I yz
I zz

- the weight of body part i

(66.)

(67.)

xi
Fi
M i
4i

- the acceleration of the centre of gravity of

body part i in the inertial coordinate system
- the external forces on body part i in the
inertial coordinate system
- the external moments on body part i in
the body coordinate system
- the mass tensor for body part i in the
body fixed coordinate system

Z i

- the angular acceleration of body part i in

the body fixed coordinate system

Zi

- the angular velocity of body part i in the

body fixed coordinate system

Typically a symmetric mass tensor is used for each body

to represent an ellipsoid. For the integration of these equations a Fourth order Runge-Kutta method is used.

Definition of Joints
Three types of 3D joints are utilized to construct the multibody model corresponding to the constraints and permitted motions of the human body.
Revolute joint
This joint constrains relative linear motion and allows only
the rotational motions around the common axis. Body elements can rotate around the axis, but these cannot be separated and gone away. The origins of the relative coordinate systems are identical on the common axis. The number of degrees of freedom of a revolute joint equals one.
The joint velocity degree of freedom is the angles first time
derivative that is between the main axes of the local coordinate systems.

Figure 19. The model of the revolute joint

This type of joints is used for the knees and elbows.

Spherical joint
This joint also constrains relative linear motion and allows
only the rotational motions but there are more degrees of
freedom. In this case, connected body elements have four
degrees of freedom. These are all rotations about the axes

of a local coordinate system, that is connected to the one

element and one rotational degree is about one axis of the
others coordinate system. The number of joint velocity degrees of freedom equals three. This type of joint is used for
the hip femur connections and for the head torso connection.

Figure 20. The model of the spherical joint

Universal joint
This joint does also not allowed relative linear motions
and the rotational motions are less for this joint type than
for spherical joint. This has only two degrees of freedom.
The local coordinate systems origins are identical in the
middle of the cardan-cross. The joint velocity degrees of
freedom are their first time derivatives.

Figure 21. The model of the universal joint

Contacts with multibody

There are three types of contact about impacting the multibody dummy. One is the contact between the body and
the vehicle involved in a pedestrian accident (ellipsoidplane). Another similar is the dummys encounter with
the ground plane. The third is a parts impact with another
(ellipsoidellipsoid) within the multibody system. These
three can be regarded and defined as two different categories because there are no significant dynamical differences between the first two cases.
The contact models are based on a linear stiffness function and these are used to calculate the contact forces in
case of the former three contact types. A coefficient of restitution is specified to define the amount of elasticity during
the contact. By means of the contact friction between the
two body parts, the contact normal force and friction forces
are calculated. Thus different impact types can be calculated, such as sliding impacts or full impacts. Other impact
parameters are automatically obtained, the location of the
impact point and the orientation of the contact plane for instance. User has the opportunity to check and supervise the
multibody features and if necessary, the parameters can
be changed.
The equations, that using for the calculation of the contact
forces are:

FA

OS

(68.)

FS

H O S

(69.)

where the parameters are:

FA
- the normal contact forces during approaching

FS
S

- the normal contact forces during separating

- the stiffness coefficient

- the depth of penetration

- the restitution coefficient

Ellipsoid plane contact

The vehicles are regarded as rigid bodies with a surface

made of small triangle planes. The vehicle shape can be
specified by using detailed 3D vehicle shapes. The vehicle
deformations are neglected as it was mentioned. The contact point is on the surface of the vehicle and has to be inside a triangular that helps to form the shape of the vehicle. The penetration () is the distance between the farness point of the ellipsoid over the contacting plane and the
plane. The calculation of the tangential contact force components uses the friction coefficient (preset between the ellipsoids and the vehicle) and the relative velocity of the
contact points. This contact force is taken into account as an
external force for the vehicle.
The Figure 22. is representing the positions of points and
parameters during an ellipsoidplane contact.

Figure 22. Ellipsoid plane contact

The calculation method is the following:

O PE  PP
&
&
nE nP

(70.)
(71.)

FnE

 FnP

(72.)

FnE

&
O S E n E

(73.)

FtE

FtP

*
*
FnE P vcpP  vcpE

(74.)

where the parameters are:

Fni
- the normal contact forces
Fti
- the tangential contact forces

- the distance of penetration

- the contact friction

*
*
v cpP  v cpE - the relative velocity between the ellipsoid
and the plane
Ellipsoid ellipsoid contact

This contact is specified for ellipsoids those have no common joint. There is an assumption in case of the contact of
two ellipsoids: the contact point has to be on a line between two points, where one point is on the surface of the
first ellipsoid and the second point is on the surface of the
other ellipsoid. The tangential planes for both points are
parallel and the distance between these two planes is a
minimum. The exact location of the contact point can be
found by means of the body stiffness values.

Figure 23. Ellipsoid ellipsoid contact

The Figure 23. is representing the relative locations of

the points and parameters. For the calculation of the tangential component of the contact force, the body friction
has to be the lower value between the specified for the
two ellipsoids. The direction of the tangential force is defined by the direction of the relative velocity of the contact
point
The equations are solved numerically for and the calculation method is the following:

O o min . where O
&
&
n1 n2

P1  P2

Fn1

 Fn 2

PC

min( P1 ; P 2 )
&
O1 S1 n1

Fn1

O1  O2

(75.)
(76.)
(77.)
(78.)
(79.)

PC

&
O 2 S 2 n 2
*
*
P1  n1 O1 P2  n2 O2

Ft1

*
*
Fn1 P C vcp 2  vcp1

(82.)

Ft 2

*
*
Fn 2 P C vcp1  vcp 2

(83.)

Fn 2

(80.)
(81.)

where the parameters are:

Fni

- the normal contact forces

Fti

- the tangential contact forces

- the distance of penetration

- the common contact friction

*
*
vcp1  vcp 2

- the relative velocity between the two ellipsoid

Note: These mentioned contacts cannot occur between

two bodies connected with a common joint.

Collision model
General
Virtual Crash utilizes an impulse and momentum-based
impact model by means of the restitution. Vehicles do not
crease in the program and the body stiffness coefficients
are not taken into account. One of the parameters about
the body crush is the depth of penetration (time-value
default: tP=0,03s), which is variable for suitable simulations. The impact forces are not calculated in each time step
at the so-called impulse point". The calculation of these