Abstract: In order to predict and evaluate the human thoracic injuries caused by rib fracture in car crashes, a finite element model of human ribs having the features of human anatomy structure are established and verified based on the CT scanning on a 50 percentile Chinese male volunteer. To improve the model’s biological fidelity, the material parameters of ribs are gain by reverse experiment of animal tissue. The model are verified by the load experiment of human body ribs and compared with the simulation data which the material parameters were cited direct from the reference. The results show that the reaction force-displacement curve agree well with the experimental curve and the model has a better biological fidelity when the material parameters were get from the reverse engineering method.

Key words: vehicle safety, biomechanical model, human rib, parameters reverse method