title: Human head-neck models in whole-body vibration: effect of posture.
abstract: This work presents passive and muscle-based models to predict the biodynamical response of the human head-neck under fore-aft and combined-axis whole-body vibration considering four head-neck postures: neutral, flexion, lateral flexion, and lateral rotation. The passive model consists of one link, a three-rotational-degrees-of-freedom joint, and traditional spring-mass-damper elements. The muscle-based model is similar to the passive model but has additional muscle components. The additional muscle component comprises spring-mass-damper elements to capture the effects of changes in displacement, velocity, acceleration, and jerk. Eleven male participants were tested under white-noise random vibration input signals at the seat level with a frequency range of 0.5-10Hz and magnitudes of 1.5m/s(2) RMS for the fore-aft condition and 1.0m/s(2) RMS in each direction for the combined-axis condition. The proposed models were able to reasonably predict the frequency content and acceleration of the head-neck for the postures under investigation, with the muscle-based model performing better.
authors.affiliation: Center for Computer-Aided Design, College of Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Salam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rahmatalla
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration / Q000009:adverse effects; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002648:Child; D006257:Head / Q000502:physiology*; D019416:Head Movements / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008954:Models, Biological; D009333:Neck / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D014732:Vibration / Q000009:adverse effects*; D055815:Young Adult