1. Side Pole Impact Baseline Model Setup and Injury Metric Extraction

Baseline Model Definition

This first case establishes the reference configuration against which every later far-side and oblique pole study will be compared. The baseline is a full-vehicle finite element (FE) side pole impact model with a far-side occupant — that is, the occupant seated on the side opposite the struck side. For a pole impact on the driver side, the far-side occupant is the front passenger. The goal is not to optimize anything yet; it is to produce a stable, documented, and repeatable run whose head, chest, and pelvis injury metrics become the reference values for the remaining 99 cases.

Before touching the solver, fix the configuration explicitly. Ambiguity here is the most common reason later comparisons become meaningless. The table below defines the baseline parameters used throughout this case. Values are representative teaching inputs for a mid-size passenger car; substitute your own validated model data where available, but keep the set internally consistent.

Model Assembly and Boundary Conditions

Assemble the model in this order so that each stage can be checked independently before adding complexity:

1. Vehicle body-in-white and closures. Confirm all side-structure parts (B-pillar, rocker, door beam, floor) are present and connected. A missing weld or disconnected door beam will show up later as an unrealistically soft intrusion.
2. Pole positioning. Place the rigid pole so its axis is vertical and its surface contacts the driver door at the intended height. Verify the initial gap is zero or a small defined clearance; a large initial gap delays contact and shifts the entire pulse.
3. Occupant placement. Seat the far-side dummy in the front passenger position with the belt routed per the restraint definition. Check that the dummy does not initially penetrate the seat or belt.
4. Contact definitions. Define vehicle-to-pole, occupant-to-interior, and belt-to-occupant contacts. Use a consistent friction coefficient and verify no initial penetrations in the contact report.
5. Initial velocity. Apply 32 km/h to the entire vehicle and occupant set, with the pole fixed. Confirm the velocity field is uniform before release.

Run a short initialization (a few milliseconds) and inspect the energy balance and contact forces. A clean start shows near-zero hourglass energy, no sudden contact spikes, and a smooth build-up of internal energy once the pole engages the door.

Injury Metric Extraction

Extract three primary metrics from the far-side occupant, each tied to a specific measurement location and processing rule. Consistency in extraction matters as much as consistency in the model, because later cases will be compared against these exact numbers.

• Head injury: resultant translational acceleration at the head center of gravity, filtered per the standard channel frequency class, used to compute HIC36. Report the peak resultant acceleration and the HIC value with its time window.
• Chest injury: chest deflection (or chest compression) from the dummy's chest potentiometer or equivalent, plus the peak resultant chest acceleration. Report peak deflection in millimeters and the time of peak.
• Pelvis injury: pelvis resultant acceleration and, where available, pelvic force. Report peak resultant acceleration and the corresponding time.

For each metric, record the peak value, the time at which it occurs, and the filter settings used. Store these in a single reference table so that every subsequent case appends its results alongside the baseline rather than overwriting it.

Running the Baseline and Verifying the Result

Submit the run with the termination time set to 150 ms and request output at a resolution fine enough to resolve the peaks — a sampling interval of 0.1 ms or finer is typical for acceleration channels. After the run completes, perform these checks before accepting the result as the baseline:

• Energy balance: total energy should be conserved within a few percent; a large hourglass energy fraction indicates a mesh or contact problem, not a physical result.
• Contact behavior: the pole should engage the door smoothly, with intrusion developing over the first 20–40 ms. A sudden force spike at t=0 signals an initial penetration.
• Occupant kinematics: the far-side occupant should move away from the struck side, loading the belt and moving toward the center console. Motion toward the struck side indicates a reversed velocity or sign error.
• Metric plausibility: peaks should occur after the intrusion pulse reaches the occupant, not before. A head peak earlier than the chest peak is a common sign of a mislabeled channel or a filter applied to the wrong signal.

If any check fails, correct the model and re-run rather than adjusting the extraction. The baseline must be physically sound before it can serve as a reference.

Reference Value Record

Once the run passes verification, record the extracted metrics in a reference table. The structure below is the deliverable for this case and the anchor for all subsequent comparisons. Fill the value and time columns from your own run; the example rows show the expected format, not measured results.

With this table populated and the model verified, the baseline is complete. Every later case — belt routing changes, impact angle sweeps, restraint variations — will be evaluated as a delta against these reference values, so the integrity of this first run determines the value of the entire study.