Date of Award
Spring 2003
Document Type
Thesis - Restricted
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Biomedical Engineering
First Advisor
Pintar, Frank A.
Second Advisor
Silver-Thorn M. B.
Third Advisor
Yoganandan, Narayan
Abstract
Airbags have been an important development in the protection of occupants located in both the driver and passenger seats of automobiles. Numerous lives have been saved as a result of the combined use of airbags and seat belts. Unfortunately, occupants that are in close proximity to a deploying airbag are at risk of sustaining injury due to the large forces that occur as the bag rapidly unfolds. It has been shown that children and small females are at the highest risk of sustaining airbag related injuries, especially to the neck. The most devastating injuries occur when the airbag unfolds under the chin causing the head and neck to go into tension and extension. Tests have been conducted to derive human tolerance values and relative strength ratios for the neck using a variety of techniques including analytical and geometric scaling. Human neck strength tolerance to tension has been defined for the average adult, but has not been delineated for the smallest and largest body sizes of our population. In a previous study conducted in this laboratory, scaling relationships were developed to define neck tolerance values of children using caprine (goat) specimens. The purpose of this study was to determine scale factors for small, mid-size and large adults using a caprine model. Because airbag-related injuries are associated with out-of-position children and small adult females, experimental data are needed to better estimate human tolerance for these populations. There are currently three different adult size anthropomorphic test devices (ATD's) in use: 5th percentile female, 50th male and 95th male. In the present study, neck radiographs from 5th, 50th and 95th percentile human adults were used to determine vertebral body heights for the small, mid-size, and large anthropometric categories. Mean human vertebral body heights were calculated for each anthropometric category and were normalized with respect to the mid-size anthropometry. This was accomplished by dividing the anthropometric category by the mid-size category. Similar measurements were calculated from caprine neck radiographs and each caprine specimen was grouped into one of the three categories based on vertebral body size...
Recommended Citation
Hilker, Christopher E., "Anthropometry-Dependent Mechanical Properties of the Cervical Spine" (2003). Master's Theses (1922-2009) Access restricted to Marquette Campus. 4827.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/theses/4827