Vibration, Mechanical Shock, and Impact

Time-varying forces and accelerations occur in daily life, and are commonly experienced, for example, in an elevator and in aircraft, railway trains, and automobiles. All of these situations involve motion of the whole body transmitted through a seat, or from the floor in the case of a standing person, where the human response is commonly related to the relative motion of body parts, organs, and tissues. The vibration, shocks, and impacts become of consequence when activities are impaired (e.g., writing and drinking on a train, or motion sickness), or health is threatened (e.g., a motor vehicle crash). Equally important are exposures involving a localized part of the body, such as the hand and arm (e.g., when operating a hand tool), or the head (e.g., impacts causing skull fracture or concussion). In this chapter, methods for characterizing human response to vibration, shock, and impact are considered in order to prescribe appropriate countermeasures. The methods involve data from experiments on humans, animals, and cadavers, and predictions using biodynamic models and manikins. Criteria for estimating the occurrence of health effects and injury are summarized, together with methods for mitigating the effects of potentially harmful exposures. There is an extensive literature on the effects of vibration, shocks, and impacts on humans (Griffin, 1990; von Gierke et al., 2002; von Gierke, 1997; Nahum et al., 1993).