Human femur response to impact loading

Kress, Tyler A.; Snider, John N.; Porta, David J.; Fuller, Peter M.; Wasserman, Jack F.; Tucker, Guy V.

Affiliations

¹Engineering Institute for Trauma and Injury Prevention, 153 Alumni Memorial Building, University of Tennasee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1506 USA

²Department of Anatomical Sciences & Neurobiology, HSC-A Room 915, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky 40292 USA

Abstract

This paper presents some of the results of a research project entitled “Dynamic Response of the Human Leg to Impact Loading.” A test facility was developed for laboratory experimentation that simulates leg impacts during automobile, pedestrian, motorcycle, and bicycle accidents. Analyses and discussions are presented for several experiments designed to study the mechanical behavior of the human femur subjected to impact loading.

About one-hundred bones have been broken in the specially designed laboratory as part of this research. The testing was divided into four categories: (1) femurs subjected to bending loads, (2) femurs under torsional loads, (3) femurs under axial loads, and (4) fresh tissue impact loadings.

The femur appears stronger when impacted in the anterior-to-posterior (a-p) direction than when impacted in the lateral-to-medial (l-m) direction. The fractures produced by the a-p impacts provide interesting clinical information. It was found that even very small torsional preloads can greatly diminish the femurs breaking strength. Axially loading the femur allowed mapping of the stress along the femur to accurately predict fracture locations.

Femur and intact thigh tests are continuing and these results will be supplemented in the future. This paper presents the implications of the first designed series of tests.

Cited Works (4)

Year	Entry
1988	Daffner RH, Deeb ZL, Lupetin AR, Rothfus WE. Patterns of high-speed impact injuries in motor vehicle occupants. J Trauma. April 1988;28(4):498-501.
1966	McElhaney JH. Dynamic response of bone and muscle tissue. J Appl Physiol. 1966;21(4):1231-1236.
1951	Evans FG, Lebow M. Regional differences in some of the physical properties of the human femur. J Appl Physiol. 1951;3(9):563-572.
1968	Mather BS. Variation with age and sex in strength of the femur. Med Biol Eng. 1968;6(2):129-132.

Cited By (8)

Year	Entry
2004	Haug E, Choi H-Y, Robin S, Beaugonin M. Human models for crash and impact simulation. In: Ayache N, ed. Computational Models for the Human Body. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier B.V; 2004:231-452. Ciarlet PG, ed. Handbook of Numerical Analysis; vol 12.
2004	Funk JR, Kerrigan JR, Crandall JR. Dynamic bending tolerance and elastic-plastic material properties of the human femur. In: 48th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 13-15, 2004; Key Biscayne, FL.215-233.
2001	Kress TA, Porta DJ. Characterization of leg injuries from motor vehicle impacts. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1995	Kress TA, Porta DJ, Snider JN, Fuller PM, Psihogios JP, Heck WL, Frick SJ, Wasserman JF. Fracture patterns of human cadaver long bones. In: Proceedings of the 1995 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 13-15, 1995; Brunnen, Switzerland.155-169.
1997	Yang JK, Lövsund P. Development and validation of a human-body mathematical model for simulation of car-pedestrian collisions. In: Proceedings of the 1997 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 24-26, 1997; Hannover, Germany.113-149.
2003	Van Hoof J, De Lange R, Wismans JSHM. Improving pedestrian safety using numerical human models. Stapp Car Crash J. 2003;47:401-436. SAE 2003-22-0018.
2000	Yang JK, Lövsund P, Cavallero C, Bonnoit J. A human-body 3D mathematical model for simulation of car-pedestrian impacts. J Crash Prev Injury Control. 2000;2(2):131-149.
2008	Kerrigan JR. A Computationally Efficient Mathematical Model of the Pedestrian Lower Extremity [PhD thesis]. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia; January 2008.