Importance of neck muscle tonus in head kinematics during pedestrian accidents

• Unprotected pedestrians are an exposed group in the rural traffic and the most vulnerable human body region is the head which is the source of many fatal injuries. This study was performed to gain a better understanding of the influence that the neck muscle tonus has on head kinematics during pedestrian accidents. This was done using a detailed whole body FE model and a detailed FE vehicle model. To determine the influence of the muscle tonus a series of simulations were performed where the vehicle speed, pedestrian posture and muscle tonus were varied. Since the human reaction time for muscle activation is in the order of the collision time, the pedestrian was assumed to be prepared for the oncoming vehicle in order to augment the possible influence of muscle tonus. From the simulations performed, kinematic data such as head rotations, trajectory and velocities were extracted for the whole collision event, as well as velocity and accelerations at head impact. These results show that muscle tonus can influence the head rotation during a vehicle collision and therefore alter the head impact orientation. The level of influence on head rotation was in general lower than when altering the struck leg forward and backward, but in the same order of magnitude for some cases. The influence on head accelerations was higher due to muscle tonus than posture in all cases.

Subject headings

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Annan medicin och hälsovetenskap -- Övrig annan medicin och hälsovetenskap (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Other Medical and Health Sciences -- Other Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Finite element method

Head kinematics

Muscle tonus

Pedestrian accident

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)