Technical Paper
Quantification of Skeletal and Soft Tissue Contributions to Thoracic Response in a Dynamic Frontal Loading Scenario
2018-11-12
2018-22-0005
Thoracic injuries continue to be a major health concern in motor vehicle crashes. Previous thoracic research has focused on 50th percentile males and utilized scaling techniques to apply results to different demographics. Individual rib testing offers the advantage of capturing demographic differences; however, understanding of rib properties in the context of the intact thorax is lacking. Therefore, the objective of this study was to obtain the data necessary to develop a transfer function between individual rib and thoracic response. A series of non-injurious frontal impacts were conducted on six PMHS, creating a loading environment commensurate to previously published individual rib testing. Each PMHS was tested in four tissue states: intact, intact with upper limbs removed, denuded, and eviscerated. Following eviscerated thoracic testing, eight individual mid-level ribs from each PMHS were removed and loaded to failure.