Impact biomechanics combines engineering and medicine to develop better safety systems and treatment options for those involved in impact injuries. Researchers use human cadavers, tissue simulants, and dummies to understand the biomechanical processes underlying impact injuries, which can lead to better medical treatment and the design of better safety systems.
Impact biomechanics is the study of what happens to the human body after an impact, such as traffic accidents, falls, and sports injuries. This field blends engineering and medicine to develop better safety systems and treatment options for those involved in impact injuries. Anyone who rides a car or plays sports, among other things, is directly benefiting from impact biomechanics research and may never know it. For example, research in this field has resulted in a radical reworking of car dashboard designs to prevent injuries such as severe head trauma caused by protruding knobs in poorly placed locations.
In this field, researchers can work with human cadavers and tissue simulants to observe what happens to actual body structures upon impact. They also use dummies in research. Far from being dumb, dummies provide a wealth of information and can be quite talkative. They’re filled with an assortment of impact sensors and measuring instruments that record pressures and forces during impact. This data is sent to a computer program which can be used to analyze test results.
Researchers want to understand the biomechanical processes underlying impact injuries. These can include phenomena such as brain damage caused by the brain rattling inside during the skull or aortic tears caused by violent back and forth movements. They learn what happens inside the body when subjected to different types of impact pressures, including sharp blows, whiplash, and forces that might be encountered in plane crashes, car crashes, and bombing raids. Understanding the nature of these injuries provides a number of benefits.
The first is better medical treatment. When researchers understand the pathology behind impact injuries, they can offer advice to healthcare professionals to help them treat patients more effectively. Awareness of the biomechanics of impact, for example, explains why many rescuers strap patients to the backboard if it’s a spinal injury. This simple measure can save lives and reduce the severity of injuries by immediately stabilizing the spine.
Furthermore, understanding the biomechanics of impact may enable the design of better safety systems. This includes restraint systems, airbags and protective equipment. Clearly dangerous systems can also be configured in new ways to reduce the risk of injury. Rearranging the elements inside a car, for example, can dramatically reduce the chances of a fatal accident. Requirements that car seats face the rear of a vehicle, for example, are based on impact biomechanics studies showing that this is a safer position in the event of an accident.
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