Development of a biodynamics work environment (BWE) which integrates a biodynamics data bank, models, and analytical...

For more than thirty years the Armstrong Laboratory (AL) has studied the response of human volunteers and human surrogates to impact accelerations. Data from these studies form a national resource which should be made available to biodynamics model builders and safety researchers everywhere. Recently AL joined with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop a multi-media Biodynamics Work Environment (BWE) which will facilitate access to both their respective data bases and provide a means for sharing that access within the scientific community. The BWE concept is sufficiently flexible to allow integration of other databases as well as biodynamics models and tools. The AL data, for example, consists of over 10,000 impact tests which are currently archived on optical media. Each test includes acceleration and motion time histories, subject anthropometry, documentation photos, and high speed video. Among the models to be included are the Articulated Total Body, Head Spine, Dynamic Response Index, Multi-axis Dynamic Response Criteria, and BURNSIM. Complementary analytical tools would involve the use of spreadsheets, statistics, modeling, data analysis, and math packages. This paper will discuss the development, current status, and future plans of the BWE.