DESIGN IDEAS
❱❱ Infant bone strength analysis is helping researchers to understand injury sources as well as to help design car safety seats
CHILDREN’S BONE ANALYSIS HELPS DESIGN SAFER CAR SEATS
The first study of its kind into infant bone strength in relation to age and weight using computer simulations could help manufacturers design safer child car seats. Bone fractures are common in childhood
and account for a quarter of all paediatric injuries. The research from University of Sheffield, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The Children’s Hospital Charity uses modelling of bone strength, the findings of which can be used to aid clinical diagnosis in determining whether broken bone injuries are accidental or inflicted. The same analysis can also be used to
help companies making children’s safety products, such as car seats, design and test them before market launch. The study uses CT scans — X-rays to take
detailed pictures of the bones from different angles — and subsequent computer models to set up scenarios looking at how a different amount of force affects bones, bending and twisting them to detect the breaking point. The non-invasive technique creates 3D
models of the femur (thigh bone) in the study of children’s bones from newborn to three- years-old — the age range where children cannot communicate effectively about how their injury occurred. This is also a period of rapid growth and researchers were able to determine how bones developed during this time and how their strength changed. Protection has improved significantly
since the introduction of car seats but car accidents are still a leading cause of life threatening injury in children. Computer aided engineering is an essential part of vehicle development and safety assessments are increasingly relying on simulations. Therefore, it is vital that the correct simulations, using accurate models, are used to ensure optimum safety. Current testing for car seats in simulated
crash tests often use scaled down models of adults to simulate a child in a given situation. However, anatomically, a toddler has a very different bone structure to an adult — the bones are not fully formed and still growing. “There is currently very little research
looking into the bone strength of young children,” says Dr Xinshan Li, from the Insigneo Institute for in silico Medicine and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield. “Our data can be applied to help car seat manufacturers, pram manufacturers, toy manufacturers and
8 /// Environmental Engineering /// June 2018
any other companies designing children’s products, to design and make safer products and use our modelling of bone strength in testing their products before bringing them to market. “In addition to the child safety industry-
based applications, the findings from our study can be used in future to aid clinical diagnosis. If we can provide a table which shows bone strength by age range for different bones in the body, we can then calculate the force required to break that particular bone. “This would help clinicians to use
evidence-based information to decide whether an injury is accidental or inflicted, particularly for younger children who aren’t
able to articulate how the injury occurred. We are grateful to The Children’s Hospital Charity, who funded the initial work in this area.” The Insigneo Institute for in silico
Medicine is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between over 140 academics and clinicians to develop computer simulations of the human body and its disease processes that can be used directly in clinical practice to improve diagnosis and treatment. The study was supported by the Higher
Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED). The project also received funding from the MultiSim Project and the European Commission H2020 programme through the CompBioMed Centre of Excellence.
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