Author(s)

M. El-Sayed, J. Brelin-Fornari & P. Shah

Abstract

For an accurate simulation of human body behavior during crashes, computational models of muscle activation and deactivation in flexion and extension need to be developed. Several attempts have been made since the late seventies to validate various three-dimensional, lumped parameter models of the human head and neck. The behavior of these models was compared to data gathered on live volunteers at the Naval Bio-dynamics Laboratory. While these experiments involved live, active muscles, the models represented muscles only in the passive state. A recently developed model introduced muscle activation and deactivation for the Naval Bio-dynamics Laboratory data. The model utilizes several muscle pairs. Activation and deactivation timing is different for each of the muscle pairs and is based on the change in length of each muscle. Therefore, both flexors and extensors are activated during the events. To further develop the muscle activation and deactivation model, for optimum parameters in correlation with the Naval Bio-dynamics Laboratory data, numerical optimization techniques were utilized. In this paper, the numerical optimization process developed for dealing with such models is discussed along with some correlation results. 1 Introduction Several three-dimensional, lumped parameter numerical models of the human head and neck developed [1-3], are compared to data gathered on live volunteers at the Naval Biodynamics Laboratory (NBDL) in the late 1970s [4-7]. While these experiments involved live, active muscles, the models represented muscles only in the passive state. Recently, a model by Brelin-Fornari [8], introduced muscle activation and deactivation for the NBDL data. Activation and deactivation timing was

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