Citation

Roberts SB. Proc. IRCOBI 1974; 2: 237-245.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1974, International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The effects of blunt trauma to the chest of a child can be scientifically studied experimentally using volunteers, cadavers or anthropometric dummies or by mathematical simulation. All have conceptual and practical limitations. Mathematical modeling is the most versatile since it enables one to conduct parametric studies to determine the relative effects of a variety of factors. It does, however, require considerable quantitative data for its construction. The geometry of the bony thorax, the mass distribution of the skeleton and viscera, the nature of the constraints provided by the variety of joints, the constitutive properties of the materials are some of the categories of required information. To date, much of this is unavailable in the literature and as a consequence the majority of modeling efforts have been limited~to lumped parameter descriptions.

Recent studies have shown how some of the fundamental geometric information can be obtained and that finite element modeling of the thorax is a promising tool in the study of blunt chest trauma.

In this brief paper we will present some recent results obtained from our three-dimensional dynamic finite element model of a child which we have designated THORAX III-C.