Finite element analysis of the effect of material properties on human thoracic impact response

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The purpose of the current study was to analyze the influence of changes of the material of the human thoracic skeleton and soft tissues on the thorax responses under frontal impact loading conditions. A series of human thorax impact simulations were conducted based on a developed and validated human thorax finite element (FE) model. A number of thoracic response parameters were output to investigate the effect of material property changes on the predicted thoracic responses by using polynomial fitting analysis. The results of the simulations indicated that varying thoracic material properties affects the impact responses with different level. The impact force (Fmax) and chest deflection (Dmax) were obviously affected, and the number of rib fractures (NRF) and T12 accelerations (Gmax-T12) were additionally affected by the material properties. However, the influences of the material properties on the deflection rate (Vmax) and T1 acceleration (Gmax-T1) were small. Specifically, the Fmax, Dmax, and Gmax-T12 were mainly influenced by the soft tissue material properties, while the NRF was primarily determined by the thoracic skeletal structure material properties.