Abstract
Limited studies present the comprehensive biomechanical analysis of sitting consisting of the external load and muscle force evaluation. This study uses a 3D multibody model representing the upper body to simulate the sitting postures and backrest support through the Newton-Euler equations. Then, the back-backrest contact pressure distribution is simulated using the contact mechanics method. Additionally, the forces of neck muscles are calculated based on inverse dynamic and static optimization. The muscle force result is compared to the simulation by OpenSim 4.2. A case study is presented, with the scaled human model and two simple backrest configurations with different headrest widths (type A and type B) based on a parameterized backrest model. The contact force, pressure distribution, and neck muscle forces are simulated while sitting with a backrest recline angle of \(30^\circ \), \(40^\circ , \) and \(50^\circ \) (from the vertical direction). It is found that the analyzed different backrest designs generate different contact loadings and neck muscle forces. The type A backrest with a narrower headrest width generates 13.7 \(\pm \, 1.9\%\) higher load in the upper thoracic region but lower support on the head compared to type B. Additionally, \(17.1\%\) higher peak contact pressure at maximum was found on Type A. Regarding the muscle forces, Type A reduces the overall tension of neck muscles by 54.2% compared to Type B; the muscle activations on both backrests remain low (<11.2% of maximum muscle force). The deviation and sources of error of the neck muscle force results from the proposed model and OpenSim 4.2 were discussed. The proposed model can be applied to predict static loadings required for back support and evaluate the backrest design from the user perspective.
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Zhong, X., Alawneh, O., Xi, J., Liu, Y., Faieghi, R., Xi, F. (2022). A 3D Biomechanical Model of Human-Seat Interaction. In: Larochelle, P., McCarthy, J.M. (eds) Proceedings of the 2022 USCToMM Symposium on Mechanical Systems and Robotics. USCToMM MSR 2022. Mechanisms and Machine Science, vol 118. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99826-4_12
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