Validation of an integrated biomechanical modeling approach to the ergonomic evaluation of drywall installation

Abstract

The present study validated an integrated biomechanical modeling approach that the researcher has previously developed to study the physical demands for drywall installers. In particular, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the impact of some quantitative assumptions that have been made to facilitate the modeling approach. Through setting up null hypothesis for each assumption and changing one parameter at a time, the new model output values were compared to the original ones. Using student t-tests to evaluate the statistical differences of the mean values, the sensitivity analysis was achieved by determining if any assumption or parameter has significant impact on the model. The results indicated that the modeling approach seemed to be the most sensitive to both the distribution of work cycles for a typical 8-hour workday and the distribution and values of Euler angles that are used to determine the "shoulder rhythm." Whereas other assumptions including the distribution of trunk postures did not appear to have significant impact on the model output values. It was concluded that the integrated approach might provide an applicable examination of exposure variability particularly reflected by the non-routine feature of the work. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.