Thorax injuries mainly due to rib fractures have been associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality in motor vehicle crashes. Thoracic biomechanics has been studied extensively, but there are no robust biomechanical response targets for ribs that consider age, sex, body size, and vulnerability factors. The objective of this study was to generate biomechanical targets for human rib response with respect to age, sex, and body size. Two-hundred sixty-one ribs from 171 individuals were dynamically loaded to failure in anterior–posterior bending. Force and displacement at the time of fracture in young adults were greater than in older adults (p < 0.0001). Sex differences were found in those over 40 years old (p < 0.0001). Fracture force from 5th percentile female ribs was lower than 50th and 95th male (p < 0.005). Vulnerable ribs were successfully identified by examining the percentile of both force and displacement at the time of fracture in the proposed samples. The biomechanical targets generated in this study will have useful applications to computational thorax and rib models to aid in injury prevention measures.

主要由肋骨骨折引起的胸部损伤与机动车碰撞中的高发病率和死亡率有关。胸部生物力学已被广泛研究，但没有考虑年龄、性别、体型和脆弱性因素的肋骨生物力学反应目标。本研究的目的是针对年龄、性别和体型等方面的人类肋骨反应生成生物力学目标。来自 171 个人的 261 根肋骨被动态加载到前后弯曲失败。年轻人骨折时的力和位移大于老年人（p  < 0.0001）。40 岁以上人群存在性别差异（p < 0.0001)。来自第 5 个百分位女性肋骨的骨折力低于第 50 位和第 95 位男性（p  < 0.005）。通过检查建议样品中断裂时的力和位移的百分位数，成功地识别出脆弱的肋骨。本研究中产生的生物力学目标将对计算胸部和肋骨模型有有用的应用，以帮助采取预防措施。