Evaluation of the Whole Body Spine Response to Sub-Injurious Vertical Loading.

Evaluation of the Whole Body Spine Response to Sub-Injurious Vertical Loading. Ann Biomed Eng. 2020 Oct 22;: Authors: Ott KA, Demetropoulos CK, Luongo ME, Titus JM, Merkle AC, Drewry DG Abstract It is critical to understand the relationship between under-body blast (UBB) loading and occupant response to provide optimal protection to the warfighter from serious injuries, many of which affect the spine. Previous studies have examined component and whole body response to accelerative based UBB loading. While these studies both informed injury prediction efforts and examined the shortcomings of traditional anthropomorphic test devices in the evaluation of human injury, few studies provide response data against which future models could be compared and evaluated. The current study examines four different loading conditions on a seated occupant that demonstrate the effects of changes in the floor, seat, personal protective equipment (PPE), and reclined posture on whole body post-mortem human surrogate (PMHS) spinal response in a sub-injurious loading range. Twelve PMHS were tested across floor velocities and time-to-peak (TTP) that ranged from 4.0 to 8.0 m/s and 2 to 5 ms, respectively. To focus on sub-injurious response, seat velocities were kept at 4.0 m/s and TTP ranged from 5 to 35 ms. Results demonstrated that spine response is sensitive to changes in TTP and the presence of PPE. However, spine response is largely insensitive to chang...
Source: Annals of Biomedical Engineering - Category: Biomedical Engineering Authors: Tags: Ann Biomed Eng Source Type: research