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Human Lumbar Spine Injury Risk in Dynamic Combined Compression and Flexion Loading

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Abstract

Anticipating changes to vehicle interiors with future automated driving systems, the automobile industry recently has focused attention on crash response in novel postures with increased seatback recline. Prior research found that this posture may result in greater risk of lumbar spine injury in the event of a frontal crash. This study developed a lumbar spine injury risk function (IRF) that estimated injury risk as a function of simultaneously applied compression force and flexion moment. Force and moment failure data from 40 compression–flexion tests were utilized in a Weibull survival model, including appropriate data censoring. A mechanics-based injury metric was formulated, where lumbar spine compression force and flexion moment were normalized by specimen geometry. Subject age was incorporated as a covariate to further improve model fit. A weighting factor was included to adjust the influence of force and moment, and parameter optimization yielded a value of 0.11. Thus, the normalized compression force component had a greater effect on injury risk than the normalized flexion moment component. Additionally, as force was nominally increased, less moment was required to produce injury for a given age and specimen geometry. The resulting IRF may be utilized to improve occupant safety in the future.

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Acknowledgments

The Toyota Collaborative Safety Research Center and Autoliv provided funding and technical support for this study. It should be noted that the views or opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily aligned with the views and opinions of the sponsoring organizations.

Conflict of interest

The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Biomechanics, University of Virginia, 4040 Lewis and Clark Drive, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Sophia K. Tushak, Bronislaw D. Gepner, Jason L. Forman & Jason R. Kerrigan

  2. Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Saline, MI, USA

    Jason J. Hallman

  3. Autoliv Research, Vårgårda, Sweden

    Bengt Pipkorn

Authors
  1. Sophia K. Tushak
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  2. Bronislaw D. Gepner
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  3. Jason L. Forman
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  6. Jason R. Kerrigan
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Correspondence to Sophia K. Tushak.

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Tushak, S.K., Gepner, B.D., Forman, J.L. et al. Human Lumbar Spine Injury Risk in Dynamic Combined Compression and Flexion Loading. Ann Biomed Eng 51, 1216–1225 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-022-03126-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-022-03126-5

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