Author(s): Naif K. Al- Shammari and Clive Neal-Sturgess
Article publication date: 2016-03-01
Vol. 34 No. 1/2 (yearly), pp. 43-56.
256

Keywords

Neck, Spinal injury, Multi body simulations, Risk, Peak virtual power, Camel collision.

Abstract

The camel–vehicle collision (CVC) problem has been increasing in Saudi Arabia and countermeasures are urgently needed to alleviate the heavy losses from such accidents. Modeling of a typical CVC has been created in a sagittal, and frontal planes to identify the common mechanisms of spinal injury of driver. In this work, computer simulations have been performed using a Multibody dynamic model of the cervical and thoracic-lumbar spine, where rigid bodies are connected by articulated joints and spring-damper elements. The internal neck forces Principle Virtual Power of Neck (PVPn) was applied at intervertebral levels for various impact speeds. PVPn was then correlated with real world crash data of neck injuries. It has been shown that PVPn at each intervertebral level correlates well with the crash data and can be used as a predictor of neck injuries.