DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN BODY VIBRATORY MODELS THROUGH ANTHROPOMORPHIC SEGMENTS

Abstract

In this thesis, a generalized procedure for vibratory modeling of human body through anthropomorphic model has been presented. The assumptions underlying the modeling procedure are clearly stated. The model parameters are obtained through the mass, stiffness and damping values of the segments of the anthropomorphic model. The mass and stiffness values of the segments are obtained using the anthropometric data and elastic modulii of bones and tissues. Damping is incorporated by assigning some appropriate damping ratio values to individual segments. For the present study only the standing posture of the human body has been taken up. The validation of modeling procedure is done by first developing the model 50th for aLpercentile US male and comparing the response with some experimental response data of US males available in the literature. Experiments were then conducted in the laboratory. to obtain frequency response of Indian males of 50th per-centile group. Vibratory models of Indian males were developed using the anthropometric data collected for 50th percentile Indian males. The theoretical response of the Indian males was especially found to be in a good agreement with the corres-ponding experimental response. The thesis seems to have achieved its objective with a -iv- fair success. On the basis of this work, vibratory models of individuals can be framed which can predict the actual frequency response with reasonable accuracy. Nevertheless, the author' expects that further refine-ments in the present modeling work would be carried out in future.