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Optimization of muscle activation schemes in a finite element neck model simulating volunteer frontal impact scenarios
- Source :
- Journal of biomechanics. 104
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Neck muscle activation is increasingly important for accurate prediction of occupant response in automotive impact scenarios and occupant excursion resulting from active safety systems such as autonomous emergency braking. Muscle activation and optimization in frontal impact scenarios using computational Human Body Models have not been investigated over the broad range of accelerations relevant to these events. This study optimized the muscle activation of a contemporary finite element model of the human head and neck for human volunteer experiments over a range of frontal impact severities (2 g to 15 g). The neck muscles were grouped as flexors and extensors, and optimization was undertaken for each group based on muscle activation level and activation time. The boundaries for optimization were defined using data from the literature and a preliminary parametric study. A linear polynomial method was used to optimize the model head kinematics to the volunteer experiments for each impact severity. The optimized models predicted muscle activation to increase with higher impact severities, and improved the average cross-correlation by 35% (0.561–0.755) relative to the Maximum Muscle Activation (MMA) scheme in the original model. Importantly, a newly proposed Cocontraction Muscle Activation (CMA) scheme for maintaining the head in a neutral posture provided a 23% on average improvement in correlation compared to the MMA scheme. In conclusion, this study identified a new scheme to obtain more accurate response kinematics across multiple impact severities in computational Human Body Models as well as contributing to the understanding of muscle influence during frontal impact scenarios.
- Subjects :
- Volunteers
Computer science
0206 medical engineering
Finite Element Analysis
Biomedical Engineering
Biophysics
02 engineering and technology
Kinematics
Models, Biological
Correlation
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Control theory
Range (statistics)
Humans
Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
Parametric statistics
Human head
Rehabilitation
Accidents, Traffic
020601 biomedical engineering
Finite element method
Neutral spine
Human-body model
Biomechanical Phenomena
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Neck
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18732380
- Volume :
- 104
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of biomechanics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....965327965d068a88d9da871cb9dd8583