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This study evaluated the biofidelity of both the Hybrid III and the THOR-NT anthropomorphic test device (ATD) necks in quasistatic tension-bending and pure-bending by comparing the responses of both the ATDs with results from validated computational models of the living human neck. This model was developed using post-mortem human surrogate (PMHS) osteoligamentous response corridors with effective musculature added (Chancey, 2005). Each ATD was tested using a variety of end-conditions to create the tension-bending loads. The results were compared using absolute difference, RMS difference, and normalized difference metrics. The THOR-NT was tested both with and without muscle cables. The THOR-NT was also tested with and without the central safety cable to test the effect of the cable on the behavior of the ATD. The Hybrid III was stiffer than the model for all tension-bending end conditions.

Pediatric cervical spine biomechanics have been under-researched due to the limited availability of pediatric post-mortem human subjects (PMHS). Scaled data based on human adult and juvenile animal studies have been utilized to augment the limited pediatric PMHS data that exists. Despite these efforts, a significant void in pediatric cervical spine biomechanics remains. Eighteen PMHS osteoligamentous head-neck complexes ranging in age from 20 weeks gestational to 14 years were tested in tension. The tests were initially conducted on the whole cervical spine and then the spines were sectioned into three segments that included two lower cervical spine segments (C4-C5 and C6-C7) and one upper cervical spine segment (O-C2). After non-destructive tests were conducted, each segment was failed in tension. The tensile stiffness of the whole spines ranged from 5.3 to 70.1 N/mm.