Design and Fabrication of a test setup for impact testing of human pelvis
Major loading mechanism through which human pelvis fails is by impact. Be it automobile accident or a simple fall, impact forces are directly transmitted to pelvis most of the times. In order to study various failure modes of pelvis, an apparatus to simulate impact injury to the pelvis inside the laboratory is required.
www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov
The aim of this project was to design, manufacture and validate the pelvic fixture to hold in position for different types of impact tests. Attempts have been made to design pelvic fixture to test following types of impacts
1) Car hitting pedestrian by side impact
2) Car hitting pedestrian by front impact
3) Side car crash - hitting passengers sitting on front seats
4) Front car crash - hitting passengers (through femoral shaft) sitting on front seats
Design of fixture is also aimed to simulate approximate real world boundary conditions for pelvis.
The above shown fixture allows required degrees of freedom for corresponding types of impact testing. It is rigid, flexible, low cost, easy to manufacture and operate. It provides wide variety of studies like measurement of impact loads, tolerance levels of different pelvic parts, stiffness, visual studies of fracture mechanism, displacements and strains of different joints in pelvic ring and it also has controlled friction and impact loading ability.
TTU, Mechanical Engineering Dept., 7th and Boston, Lubbock, TX 79409
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