Citation

Roth S, Raul JS, Ruan J, Willinger R. Int. J. Veh. Safety 2007; 2(4): 404-421.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

10.1504/IJVS.2007.016750

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During growth, a child's head undergoes different modifications in morphology and structure. This paper presents an anthropometric study in terms of dimension compared to the scaling method developed by Mertz which consists of reducing the adult head model with a scaling coefficient to obtain a child head. A detailed sizes and shape analysis of brain contour in sagittal and frontal plans is then proposed, for child head versus a scaled adult head. The superimposition of those contours allowed pointing to main differences. Numerical simulations performed with the detailed three year old child head model developed in this present study, and a scaled adult head finite element model, showed that reducing an adult finite element model to obtain a child head by scaling method does not seem to be realistic. Then, the creation of specific finite element models of child head seems necessary to understand paediatric injuries.