FE modeling of the human neck responses in low-speed car collisions

Abstract

The main goal of the current study is to improve an FE neck model with human like response in vehicle frontal, rear-end and side collisions based on an existing model developed in Hunan University. This model consists of the cervical vertebrae, intervertebral discs, ligaments and muscles that are modeled with various element types. The neck model is validated against kinematics data from volunteer tests. The response of the model generally shows a good agreement with the test results for the main part of the time history of the collision events. Sensitivity analysis of the model shows that the Young's modulus of the disc has a great influence on the head-neck kinematics. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.