Finite element human body models with active reflexive muscles suitable for sex based whiplash injury prediction
Journal article, 2022

Previous research has not produced a satisfactory resource to study reflexive muscle activity for investigating potentially injurious whiplash motions. Various experimental and computational studies are available, but none provided a comprehensive biomechanical representation of human response during rear impacts. Three objectives were addressed in the current study to develop female and male finite element human body models with active reflexive neck muscles: 1) eliminate the buckling in the lower cervical spine of the model observed in earlier active muscle controller implementations, 2) evaluate and quantify the influence of the individual features of muscle activity, and 3) evaluate and select the best model configuration that can be
used for whiplash injury predictions. The current study used an open-source finite element model of the human body for injury assessment representing an average 50th percentile female anthropometry, together with the derivative 50th percentile male morphed model. Based on the head-neck kinematics and CORelation and Analyis (CORA) tool for evaluation, models with active muscle controller and parallel damping elements showed improved head-neck
kinematics agreement with the volunteers over the passive models. It was concluded that this model configuration would be the most suitable for gender-based whiplash injury prediction when different impact severities are to be studied.

reflexive neck muscle

whiplash

rear impact

human body models

finite element

Author

I Putu Alit Putra

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety

Johan Iraeus

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety

Fusako Sato Sakayachi

Japan Automobile Research Institute

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety

Mats Svensson

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety

Robert Thomson

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

2296-4185 (eISSN)

Vol. 10

Open Access Virtual Testing Protocols for Enhanced Road User Safety (VIRTUAL)

European Commission (EC) (EC/H2020/768960), 2018-06-01 -- 2022-05-31.

Areas of Advance

Transport

Subject Categories

Applied Mechanics

Other Medical Engineering

Vehicle Engineering

DOI

10.3389/fbioe.2022.968939

PubMed

36246354

Related datasets

The Supplementary Material [dataset]

URI: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2022. 968939/full#supplementary-material

More information

Latest update

10/26/2023