Background and objective

Recent research and tested data suggested that spinal injuries occur more often in a frontal impact. Most of the published information is focused on the lumbar spinal injury with respect to axial compression force by varying the height of drops. Parametric studies on the lumbar spinal injury are very scanty. Therefore, the present investigation aimed to optimize the effects of drop height, torso weight and seat angle on the characterization of lumbar injury criteria

Methods

A detailed finite element model of a spine with multi-segmented spinal columns is developed and validated with the experimental or cadaveric tests using CORA evaluation. Hence, Dynamic loading studies or weight drop techniques were used to characterize the effect of drop height, seat angle and torso weight of the upper body on the lumbar spinal injury during a frontal impact. Parametric simulations were carried out using response surface methodology (RSM). Test of significance (p < 0.05) on the parameters was carried out using ANOVA. Desirability Function Approach is used to optimize the parameters for better safety design.

Results

The result shows that all the factors considered in the experiment are related to the risk of lumbar spinal injury during the frontal impact. All the factors selected, the drop height, torso weight and the seat angle were the most prominent element in determining the lumbar spinal injury. The injury increased with the increase in the posture angle of the seat. Optimal parameters were determined for the better safety of the occupants as seat angle of 105°, drop height 500 mm and torso weight of 25 kg in vehicle design. During vertical impact, posterior undergoes maximum impact in the portions of vertebra and confirmed with the patient case study fracture of vertical drop incident.

Conclusions

This research insight gives an improved understanding of the parametric influence of design alternatives to minimize the risk of lumbar spinal injury in automotive vehicles. The optimal combination of drop height and the seat angle provides futuristic view on autonomous vehicle seat design.

中文翻译：

---

建立启发式关系，以预测自动驾驶车辆和生物环境在垂直撞击过程中的脊柱损伤。

背景和目标

最近的研究和测试数据表明，脊柱损伤多发生在额叶撞击中。通过改变液滴的高度，大多数公开的信息集中于相对于轴向压缩力的腰椎损伤。腰椎损伤的参数研究很少。因此，本研究旨在优化跌落高度，躯干重量和坐姿角度对腰椎损伤标准表征的影响

方法

开发了详细的脊柱多节脊柱有限元模型，并使用CORA评估通过实验或尸体测试进行了验证。因此，动态负荷研究或减重技术被用来表征跌落高度，座位角度和上身躯干重量对正面撞击过程中腰椎损伤的影响。使用响应面方法（RSM）进行参数模拟。 使用ANOVA进行参数的显着性检验（p <0.05）。期望函数法用于优化参数，以实现更好的安全性设计。

结果

结果表明，实验中考虑的所有因素均与额叶撞击过程中腰椎损伤的风险有关。选择的所有因素，跌落高度，躯干重量和坐姿角度是确定腰椎损伤的最主要因素。伤害随着座椅姿势角度的增加而增加。确定最佳参数以提高乘员的安全性，例如在车辆设计中座椅角度为105°，落下高度为500 mm，躯干重量为25 kg。在垂直冲击过程中，后部在椎骨部分受到最大冲击，并通过个案研究垂直下降事件的骨折得到证实。

结论

这项研究洞察力使人们对设计替代方案的参数影响有了更好的了解，以最大程度地降低汽车中腰椎损伤的风险。跌落高度和座椅角度的最佳组合为自动驾驶汽车座椅设计提供了未来的视角。