Finite element Human Body Models are increasingly becoming vital tools for injury assessment and are expected to play an important role in virtual vehicle safety testing. With the aim of realizing models to study sex-differences seen in the injury- and fatality-risks from epidemiology, we developed models that represent an average female and an average male. The models were developed with an objective to allow tissue-based skeletal injury assessment, and thus non-skeletal organs and joints were defined with simplified characterizations to enhance computational efficiency and robustness. The model lineup comprises female and male representations of (seated) vehicle occupants and (standing) vulnerable road users, enabling the safety assessment of broader segments of the road user population. In addition, a new workflow utilized in the model development is presented. In this workflow, one model (the seated female) served as the base model while all the other models were generated as closely-linked derivative models, differing only in terms of node coordinates and mass distribution. This approach opens new possibilities to develop and maintain further models as part of the model lineup, representing different types of road users to reflect the ongoing transitions in mobility patterns (like bicyclists and e-scooter users). In this paper, we evaluate the kinetic and kinematic responses of the occupant and standing models to blunt impacts, mainly on the torso, in different directions (front, lateral, and back). The front and lateral impacts to the thorax showed responses comparable to the experiments, while the back impact varied with the location of impact (T1 and T8). Abdomen bar impact showed a stiffer load-deflection response at higher intrusions beyond 40 mm, because of simplified representation of internal organs. The lateral shoulder impact responses were also slightly stiffer, presumably from the simplified shoulder joint definition. This paper is the first in a series describing the development and validation of the new Human Body Model lineup, VIVA+. With the inclusion of an average-sized female model as a standard model in the lineup, we seek to foster an equitable injury evaluation in future virtual safety assessments.
Finite element Human Body Models are increasingly becoming vital tools for injury assessment and are expected to play an important role in virtual vehicle safety testing. With the aim of realizing models to study sex-differences seen in the injury- and fatality-risks from epidemiology, we developed models that represent an average female and an average male. The models were developed with an objective to allow tissue-based skeletal injury assessment, and thus non-skeletal organs and joints were defined with simplified characterizations to enhance computational efficiency and robustness. The current model lineup comprises female and male representations of (seated) vehicle occupants and (standing) vulnerable road users, enabling the safety assessment of a broader segment of the road user population. In addition, a new workflow utilized in the model development is presented. In this workflow, one model (the seated female) served as the base model while all the other models were generated as closely-linked derivative models, differing only in terms of node coordinates and mass distribution. This approach opens new possibilities to develop and maintain further models as part of the model lineup, representing different types of road users to reflect the ongoing transitions in mobility patterns (like bicyclists and e-scooter users). This paper is the first in a series describing the development and validation of the new Human Body Model lineup, VIVA+. In this paper, we evaluate the kinetic and kinematic responses of the occupant and standing models to blunt impacts, mainly on the torso, in different directions (front, lateral, and back). Moreover, with the inclusion of an average-sized female model as a standard model in the lineup, we seek to foster an equitable injury evaluation in future virtual safety assessments.
Background: Cervical spine ligaments that protect the spinal cord and stabilize the spine are frequently injured in motor vehicle collisions and other traumatic situations. These injuries are usually incomplete, and often difficult to notice. The focus of the presented study is placed on analysis of the effect of subfailure load on the mechanical response of the three main cervical spine ligaments: the anterior and the posterior longitudinal ligament and the ligamentum flavum. Methods: A total of 115 samples of human cadaveric ligaments removed within 24-48 h after death have been tested. Uniaxial tension tests along the fiber direction were performed in physiological conditions on a custom designed test equipment. The ligaments were loaded into an expected damage zone at two different subfailure values (based on previously reported reference group of 46 samples), and then reloaded to failure. Findings: The main effect of a high subfailure load has proven to be the toe elongation change. The toe elongation increase is affected by the subfailure load value. While anterior and posterior longitudinal ligament showed similar changes, the smallest subfailure effect was found in ligamentum flavum. Interpretations: The normal physiological region of the cervical spine ligaments mechanical response is modified by a high subfailure load. The observed ligament injury significantly compromises ligament ability to give tensile support within physiological spinal motion.
The aim of this study is to verify whether a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ can be utilized as a low-cost device for controlling a tensile-testing device used for material research purposes. A list of requirements based on already-available hardware was drawn up, which the new control system had to fulfil. To connect all the necessary equipment, a connection board was constructed, and some additional hardware was acquired for the system to be able to perform all the necessary tasks. The whole controlling system was also put in a small enclosure to make it portable. The control-system software was written in C++ using the Pigpio library. The developed system was then tested, and the results were compared to a commercially available Instron 8802 device. A comparison of the results shows that the upgraded equipment can produce comparable results to commercially available devices and is sufficiently accurate to be applied for research purposes for the characterization of soft tissues and other materials.
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