Cluster analysis of seriously injured occupants in motor vehicle crashes.

Permanent monitoring of real-world crashes is important to identify injury patterns and injury mechanisms that still occur in the field despite existing regulations and consumer testing programs. This study investigates current injury patterns at the MAIS 3+ level in the accident environment without limiting the impact direction. The approach consisted of applying unsupervised clustering algorithms to NASS-CDS crash data in order to classify seriously injured, belted occupants into clusters based on injured body regions, biomechanical characteristics and crash severity.

Finite element comparison of human and Hybrid III responses in a frontal impact.

The improvement of finite element (FE) Human Body Models (HBMs) has made them valuable tools for investigating restraint interactions compared to anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of various combinations of safety restraint systems on the sensitivity of thoracic injury criteria using matched ATD and Human Body Model (HBM) simulations at two crash severities. A total of seven (7) variables were investigated: 3-point belt with two (2) load limits, frontal airbag, knee bolster airbag, a buckle pretensioner, and two (2) delta-v's - 40kph and 50kph.

Biomechanical response of the human clavicle: the effects of loading direction on bending properties.

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of loading direction on the structural response of the human clavicle subjected to three-point bending. A total of 20 clavicles were obtained from 10 unembalmed fresh-frozen postmortem human subjects ranging from 45 to 92 years of age. The right and left clavicles from each subject were randomly divided into two test groups.

Characterization of crash-induced thoracic loading resulting in pulmonary contusion.

Background: Pulmonary contusion (PC) is commonly sustained in motor vehicle crash. This study utilizes the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) database and vehicle crash tests to characterize the occupants and loading characteristics associated with PC. A technique to match CIREN cases to vehicle crash tests is applied to quantify the thoracic loading associated with this injury.

A population-based comparison of CIREN and NASS cases using similarity scoring.

The Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) provides significant details on injuries, and data on patient outcomes that is unavailable in the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS). However, CIREN cases are selected from specific Level I trauma centers with different inclusion criteria than those used for NASS, and the assertion that a given case is similar to the population of NASS cases is often made qualitatively. A robust, quantitative method is needed to compare CIREN to weighted NASS populations.

Biomechanical response of the human clavicle subjected to dynamic bending.

The purpose of this study was to determine the biomechanical response of human clavicles when subjected to dynamic three-point bending. A total of 10 human cadaver clavicles were tested at an anatomical impact of 0 degrees relative to the transverse plane. Each clavicle was instrumented with a strain gage located under the impactor.

Numerical simulation of a cellular-level experiment to induce traumatic injury to neurons.

Previous research has developed a pneumatically driven device for delivering a controlled mechanical insult to cultured neurons. The neuronal cell culture was injured by applying a transient air pulse to a culture well fitted with a highly elastic Silastic culture well bottom. In response to the pressure pulse, he Silastic culture well bottom deformed, stretched the attached cell culture, and resulted in observable cell injuries and death.