Title: A computational model for articulated human body dynamics

Authors: X. Gary Tan, Andrzej J. Przekwas

Addresses: CFD Research Corporation, 215 Wynn Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA. ' CFD Research Corporation, 215 Wynn Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA

Abstract: We developed a novel computational model for articulated human body dynamics, which utilises anatomical geometry of human body for biomechanical simulations. The articulated human body dynamics is computed by an implicit multi-body solver. The exact linearisation of the weak form was carried out to guarantee a quadratic rate of convergence. The developed solver enforces the kinematic constraints well while imposing no limitation on the time step size. The main advantage of the model is the anatomical surface representation of a human body which can accurately account for both the surface loading and the surface interaction. The inertial properties are calculated using a finite element method. To study the articulated human body dynamics under a blast wave loading, we developed an interface to apply the loading resulted from a gas dynamics simulation. The numerical results show that the model is capable of realistically predicting the human body dynamics and can be used to study primary injury mechanism.

Keywords: articulated human body; implicit multi-body dynamics; blast wave injury; finite element method; FEM; anatomical geometry; biomechanical simulation; biomechanics; kinematic constraints; anatomical surface representation; surface loading; surface interaction; gas dynamics; human body dynamics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHFMS.2011.041639

International Journal of Human Factors Modelling and Simulation, 2011 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.85 - 110

Received: 03 Jan 2011
Accepted: 24 Feb 2011

Published online: 22 Oct 2014 *

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