Assessment of loads in the lumbar spine during frontal collision sled tests

The ultimate goal of this study is to understand the loading of a cadaveric lumbar spine in a full body cadaver subjected to a frontal impact sled test. In order to accomplish this, a series of experiments have been designed to determine the rate sensitive mechanical response of the isolated lumbar spine. First, the low rate mechanical responses of the cadaveric and Hybrid III anthropomorphic test device lumbar spines were assessed in a parallel study. Next, high rate dynamic tests were conducted on both cadaveric and Hybrid III lumbar spines. In this way, the effects of increased loading rate could be addressed through direct comparison of the results.; Once the mechanical response of the isolated lumbar spine was characterized, attempts were made to correlate these data to lumbar spine loading data from actual sled tests. Hybrid III sled tests were conducted with special interest in the loading and deformation of the lumbar spine. The dummy was instrumented with a lower lumbar load cell to assess the loading of the lumbar spine. High-speed video will also be used to determine the magnitude of displacement during these sled tests. By using seat belt loads and acceleration data, an estimate of flexion-extension moment in the lumbar spine was made. These results were then verified against direct measurements taken by the lower lumbar load cell of the dummy. It is believed that such a technique could also be applied to the lumbar spine loading in a cadaveric sled test. While no cadaveric sled tests were performed in this study, archival films have been assessed for lumbar deformation during frontal impacts.