We attended the Automotive CAE Grand Challenge on 16 and 17 April 2024 in Frankfurt, Germany, and we were among the speakers. Over the past three decades, computer simulation has revolutionized automotive development, becoming an essential tool for engineers worldwide. Despite remarkable advancements, there are still hurdles to overcome in virtual vehicle development.

The Automotive CAE Grand Challenge 2024 is a platform fostering dialogue among users, scientists, and software developers to tackle these challenges head-on. Emanuele Di Meo, representing RBF Morph and University of Rome Tor Vergata, took the stage on April 17th to deliver a presentation titled ‘Human Body Models customization by advanced mesh morphing: parametric THUMS’.

In this work the parametrization of the Total HUman Model for Safety (THUMS) has been developed by the mesh morphing of THUMS AM50 (Adult Male 50th anthropometric percentile) to different body sizes. The mesh morphing process from the 50th to the generic percentile has been fully automated, achieving significant results: the ability to perform THUMS parametric mesh morphing in approximately 10 seconds! The study has evaluated the effectiveness of the adopted mesh morphing strategy through geometric parameters to compare the shape of the original THUMS AM95 with its parametric counterpart AM50m95 (AM50 morphed to 95th percentile). The AM50m35, AM50m75 and AM50m95 configurations were used in a frontal sled test, a classic HBM crash test application. Geometric and kinematics verifications confirmed close correspondence between THUMS AM95 and AM50m95, with a global average deviation in the range of millimeters comparing both geometrical and kinematics quantities.