Abstract
Even in these days, when the safety of automobile has been improved, the number of automobile accidents is numerous. Among automobile accidents, Whiplash Injury has the highest occurrence rate, however the mechanism of Whiplash injury has not been clear. Therefore, we need to clarify the cause of Whiplash injury and to prevent the occurrence of it. The aim of this research is to develop the physical neck model reproducing biological neck structures. In this research, first we chose substitute materials whose mechanical property is close to the element of biological neck. Then we developed the physical neck model and conducted the validity evaluation test. Finally we investigated the mechanism of Whiplash injury by using our model. In order to evaluate the validity of the model, we measured the head rotational angle and compared it with volunteer's. The results showed that the head rotational angle of the model is completely within the corridor of volunteer's. Thus, it is obvious that the model we developed sufficiently reproduces the behavior of biological neck. Using this model, we measured the elongation of neck which couldn't be gotten from previous dummies and we compared it for with and without sternocleidomastoid. From these results, the drastic increase and decrease of elongation induces the neck damage and causes Whiplash injury.
