Prediction of pressure in the spinal column during professional physical activities: the use of multibody simulation

¹ Facultépolytechnique, Université de Mons, Boulevard Dolez 31, 7000 Mons, Belgique
² Modyva, Rue René Descartes 1/4, 7000 Mons, Belgique

^a Corresponding author: pierre.tihon@umons.ac.be

Received: 7 January 2014
Accepted: 15 May 2014

Abstract

Nowadays, backache risks due to professional activities remain high, while their quantitative estimation is not well-known. Different methods have been developed to determine the exposure of the spinal column to risk of damage. In Belgium, the “Fond des Maladies professionnelles” (FMP) suggests to use the “Mainz Dortmund Dosis” (MDD) method to compute the exposure dose accumulated during the whole professional life. This method uses the so-called biomechanical model “The Dortmunder” where the skeleton of the human body is represented by 30 rigid bodies to which certain abdominal and back muscles are linked. This paper presents an implementation of the Dortmunder model with EasyDyn, a C++ library developed by the Department of Theoretical Mechanics, Dynamics and Vibrations of the University of Mons for solving multibody problems, among others. Our model is first validated by comparing the obtained results with the one found in the literature. It is then used in a posture that is not considered yet by the FMP. It is shown that working on ones knees can induce forces in the back that increase the risk of backage.