Human body models are created in a specific posture and often repositioned and analyzed without retaining stresses that result from repositioning. For example, repositioning a human neck model within the physiological range of motion to a head-turned posture prior to an impact results in initial stresses within the tissues distracted from their neutral position. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of repositioning on the subsequent kinetics, kinematics, and failure modes, of a lower cervical spine motion segment, to support future research at the full neck level. Repositioning was investigated for 3 modes (tension, flexion, and extension) and 3 load cases. The model was repositioned and loaded to failure in one continuous load history (case 1), or repositioned then restarted with retained stresses and loaded to failure (case 2). In case 3, the model was repositioned and then restarted in a stress-free state, representing current repositioning methods. Not retaining the repositioning stresses and strains resulted in different kinetics, kinematics, or failure modes, depending on the mode of loading. For the motion segment model, the differences were associated with the intervertebral disc fiber reorientation and load distribution, because the disc underwent the largest deformation during repositioning. This study demonstrated that repositioning led to altered response and tissue failure, which is critical for computational models intended to predict injury at the tissue level. It is recommended that stresses and strains be included and retained for subsequent analysis when repositioning a human computational neck model.
| INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUNDRecently, extensive efforts are being made with automotive crash simulations and computational models to address occupant safety challenges, such as out-of-position scenarios, using advanced finite element human body models (HBM). [1][2][3][4] These models incorporate representations of soft and hard tissues including bones surrounded by muscles, tendons, and ligaments such as the total human model for safety, human models for safety (HUMOS2), and the HBMs developed by the global human Received: 20 September 2016 Revised: 29 May body models consortium (GHBMC). [5][6][7] Although these HBMs have demonstrated new potential to evaluate injuries at the tissue level, they are often created in a specific position such as a seated driving posture and therefore must be morphed or repositioned to other important postures such as standing in the case of a pedestrian, or may be repositioned to investigate postural effects for specific body regions such as the neck or thorax. 3,4 In addition, integrating an occupant HBM with a vehicle model may require considering different positions of the HBMs compared to the standardized positions of the models. [8][9][10] This implies that repositioning of body regions or the entire HBM may be required for analysis of different impact scenarios; however, in current methods the focus has been on retaining mesh quality,...