technique for chestband contour shape-mapping in lateral impact

the chestband transducer permits noninvasive measurement of transverse plane biomechanical response during blunt thorax impact. although experiments may reveal complex two-dimensional (2d) deformation response to boundary conditions, biomechanical studies have heretofore employed only uniaxial chestband contour quantifying measurements. the present study described and evaluated an algorithm by which source subject-specific contour data may be systematically mapped to a target generalized anthropometry for computational studies of biomechanical response or anthropomorphic test dummy development. algorithm performance was evaluated using chestband contour datasets from two rigid lateral impact boundary conditions: flat wall and anterior-oblique wall. comparing source and target anthropometry contours, peak deflections and deformation-time traces deviated by less than 4%. these results suggest that the algorithm is appropriate for 2d deformation response to lateral impact boundary conditions.