Modeling and Evaluation of a Finite Element Cervical Spinal Cord for Injury Assessment

Abstract: Motor vehicles collisions and falls have gradually increase the risk for spinal cord injuries. An increased knowledge of the spinal behavior and its injury mechanisms can be used as preventive strategies. Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) SAFER is used as a tool for injury prevention, however, there is a lack of studies that evaluate the spinal cord injuries. The aim of this thesis is to implement a cervical spinal cord into the THUMS model. The mesh element quality was modified and the spinal cord was further adjusted for a correct insertion into the THUMS. The strain of the posterior and anterior surface of the cervical spinal cord during a head flexion were analyzed against experiments. Subsequently, a comparison of the head kinematics in frontal collision of the THUMS with and without the cervical spinal cord was performed. A refinement of the mesh element quality for a suitable computational time was achieved. The strain evaluation of the the spinal cord showed the same behavior as in the experiment for the posterior surface but the results were contradictory for the anterior surface. The results of the head kinematics with and without spinal cord showed no good correlation with the experimental data. Moreover, the models exhibited a bigger difference between them during the extension of the head than flexion. A further improvement of the mesh element quality required smaller element size. Nonetheless, it is important to consider that computational time increases with a decrease of element size. Several factors were critical for the strain comparison, such as the lack of information for the calculation of the strain. The difference in head kinematics from the experiment may be due to the material properties of the neck skin and the lack of the active muscles. Moreover, the contact constraints in the model may result in the differences between the THUMS models. In general, the spinal cord has been refined to obtain a favorable computational time. The evaluations have indicated that further modifications in the neck skin and contact constraints are needed for a better resemblance with the human body. Likewise, further validations against experimental studies are suggested.