As the structural link between the head and chest, the neck plays a vital role in determining the dynamics of the head during indirect impact. This paper discusses the factors involved in specifying and quantifying the dynamic performance of dummy neck simulations.

The literature on cervical spine mechanics, including recent x-ray studies on cervical spine mobility in human volunteers and human volunteer sled tests is reviewed and summarized with respect to human head-neck response to dynamic loading. The mechanics of the head-neck system is discussed and a rationale is developed for utilizing human volunteer response data is assessing neck simulation performance. Additional factors influencing dummy neck design are indicated and the results of a program to develop an improved neck simulation utilizing these concepts is presented.