Examination of spinal column vibrations: a non-invasive approach

Accelerations of vertebrae during whole-body vibration (WBV) are used in occupational biomechanics for the prediction of internal stress. To avoid invasive techniques, a method for the calculation of bone accelerations was developed using measurements on the skin. The soft tissue between spinous processes L3 and T5 and miniature accelerometers stuck to the skin over them was modelled by a simple Kelvin element, whose parameters i.e. angular natural frequency omega n and critical damping zeta, describe an approximate transfer function between the bone (input) and the skin surface (output). The parameters were determined from free damped oscillations of the accelerometer-skin complex in the Z-axis, and depended significantly on the factors "subject" and "point of measurement". In one subject, the time courses of bone accelerations during sinusoidal WBV (4.5 and 8 Hz; 1.5 m.s-2 RMS) were calculated using separate transfer functions for each of 11 different spinal levels. Since the output signals on the skin were non-sinusoidal, the skin accelerations had to be treated with an inverse transfer function in the frequency domain. A comparison of accelerations measured on the skin and predicted for the bone mainly indicates that absolute peak values of bone accelerations are smaller and occur earlier. Both kinds of acceleration hint at differences in WBV-induced internal stress within the spine.