Currently, dummies are used to evaluate the potential for neck injuries under both inertial loading and direct contact loading, such as in the case of air bag loading. However, there is currently little known data on the biomechanical response of the human neck under direct head contact loading conditions. The objective of this preliminary research is to develop an experimental approach and analysis method that can characterize the response of human neck under low severity head impact loading conditions and compare the results with those for a dummy. The tests included three healthy adult male volunteers with an average age of 22, and a Hybrid III (HY-III) test dummy. Low-level impact loads to the head and face of each subject were applied via a strap at one of three locations in various directions: an upward load applied to the chin, a rearward load applied to the chin, and a rearward load applied to the forehead. For the volunteers, activation of the neck musculature was determined using electromyographs (EMG), and only the results for the relaxed muscle activation are presented here. For each of the test conditions, the three relaxed volunteers showed similar head rotation patterns, with the highest head rotational velocities observed for the chin-upwards loading condition. By contrast, the dummy's head rotation was small for all loading modes. The calculated forces at the occipital condyle were comparable for the volunteers and dummy, although the calculated moments in the dummy were somewhat higher than those for the relaxed volunteers.
Abstract