Lower Extremities Axial Compression Injury Characteristic of Personnel Shipboard by Simulating Ship Shock Motions

Objective Underwater explosion can produce enormous shock acceleration in a very short duration,resulting in severe human injuries,and human lower extremities are prone to be injured by shock acceleration.Materials and Methods Twelve fresh cadavers specimens,including femur,tibia,fibular,talus,and calcaneus,were used to investigate the lower extremity injury by ship shock motions,static and dynamic axial compression tests were conducted on the impactor to simulate ship shock environment.Results Compression characteristics of lower extremities,such as break load,compression strain,were obtained.The data were analyzed to derive overload acceleration,injury characteristic and dynamic load coefficient.The criteria for human lower extremity tolerance to ship shock were proposed.Conclusion Damage load of calcaneus and femur are the lowest in lower extremities,dynamic compression resistance properties are also poor,which confirm the fact that calcaneus and femur are prone to be injured in ship shock injuries.