title: Development of a finite element/multi-body model of a newborn infant for restraint analysis and design.
abstract: A finite element/multi-body model of a newborn infant has been developed by researchers at the University of Windsor. The geometry of this model is derived from a Nita newborn hospital training mannequin. It consists of 17 parts: eight upper and lower limb segments, the torso, head, and a seven-segment neck with seven translational and eight rotational joints. Anthropometry is consistent with hospital growth charts, measurements requested from health professionals and data from the open literature. The biomechanical properties of the model (i.e. joint stiffnesses) are implementations of data identified in the open literature. The model has been validated with respect to studies of the biomechanics of shaken baby syndrome, infant falls and the Q0 anthropomorphic testing device. A significant conclusion of this study is that the kinetics of the Q0 neck is not biofidelic. This model is currently used in an analysis of airway patency for infants in modern automotive child restraints.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Mechanical Engineering , University of Windsor , 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor Ontario N9B 3P4 , Canada.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bondy
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Altenhof
authors.forename: Xilin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Snowdon
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vrkljan
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D057207:Child Restraint Systems; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008348:Manikins; D038642:Shaken Baby Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology