The discipline of biomechanics integrates the laws of physics and the working concepts of engineering to describe the motion of various body segments and the forces acting on these segments. Injury biomechanics then couples the knowledge of force and motion with a thorough understanding of functional human anatomy, human biomechanics and human tissue mechanics to explore the possible relationships between external events and human tissue injury.
Critical insight into biomechanical issues can often be gained through full scale or model testing. Testing done in the our allows us to vary the parameters of speed, angle, mass and momentum to see the effect of forces imparted to a human. A few of the issues we have considered:
- Impact while sitting in a vehicle
- Pedestrians impacted by vehicles
- Sports related movement and contact
- A person’s gait relative to causal factors for a fall event
- Lifting objects
- Fall kinematics
- Adaptive strategies for handling walkway transitions
- Trajectory after being struck
- The likelihood of injury from the reported event