Development of Fast-Human Body Finite Element Model for Injury Assessment in Football

Abstract

The effect of an impact on the human body is a major concern at contact sports such as football for safe playing. In particular, regarding head injury caused by a severe impact, it is necessary to investigate its injury occurrence mechanism and establish an accurate evaluation method. However, there is a big challenge to investigate the effect of an impact on the human body that an experiment with the human body is very difficult to carry out. In this study, based on the videos of the scene that a head injury occurred in a football game, we modeled the condition of its injury scene and analyzed the effect of the impact on the human body. We used three types of human body finite element model; Hybrid III normal model, Hybrid III fast model, and THUMS. In addition, we improved the analysis accuracy with Hybrid III fast model by remodeling the rigid elements of its back and neck. It was found that THUMS's impact propagation is relatively slow compared to both Hybrid III models. This is thought to be because THUMS has less rigid elements than Hybrid III finite element models. In order to improve the analysis accuracy, it is essential to film the football competition with a motion capture device and verify the validity of the human body finite element model.