Improved Neck Simulation for Anthropometric Dummies

This paper describes the development of an improved neck simulation that can be adapted to current anthropometric dummies. The primary goal of the neck design is to provide a reasonable simulation of human motion during impact while maintaining a simple, rugged structure. A synthesis of the current literature on cervical spine mechanics was incorporated with the results of x-ray studies of cervical spine mobility in human volunteers and with the analysis of head-neck motions in human volunteer sled tests to provide a background for the design and evaluation of neck models. Development tests on neck simulations were carried out using a small impact sled. Tests on the final prototype simulation were also performed with a dummy on a large impact sled. Both accelerometers and high-speed movies were used for performance evaluation. A mathematical model of the cervical spine was developed for the purpose of comparing the neck simulation responses to the results obtained from the human volunteer sled tests. The features of the final prototype neck simulation are discussed and comparisons are made with current dummy neck performance.