Volunteer Shoulder Range of Motion and Stiffness: Data for Evaluation of Crash Test Dummies and Human Body Models

• The shoulder complex has low priority in the development of frontal impact crash test dummiesand Human Body Models. It is rarely exposed to injuries in frontal collisions but it does influence belt interactionand, as such, the thorax compression and head kinematics. Therefore, this study establishes responserequirements for the shoulder complex in terms of range of motion and stiffness.Six male volunteers were seated and belted, with minimum belt‐clavicle interaction, and shoulders werestatically loaded with increasing load; 0 ̶ 200 N/shoulder. Shoulders were pulled straight forward, forwardupward,upward and rearward. Three repetitions per direction were carried out.Resultant shoulder range of motion, at maximum loads, ranged from 44 to 73 mm. The volunteers providedmeasurements with reasonable repeatability.The applied loads were lower than those commonly seen in frontal crashes; however, the shoulder is highlymobile and its response is largely dependent on muscle characteristics. As such, these studies of volunteerresponses may be complimentary to tests with post mortem human subjects. Also, the volunteers curved theirspines only slightly in these tests. Hence, shoulder motion was successfully isolated and results reflect pureshoulder relative to chest motions. As such the data are suitable for dummy and Human Body Modelevaluations.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

volunteer

stiffness

Range of motion

validation data

shoulder

Publication and Content Type

kon (subject category)

ref (subject category)