Applying Kane’s Method to Model the Response of the Human Body to Whole-Body Vibration
Low magnitude, high frequency whole-body vibration (WBV) has been found to increase bone mineral density in both animal and clinical studies [1,2,3]. The mechanism behind this phenomenon is unknown and a model would be beneficial to assist in analyzing the effects of WBV on the human skeleton. In this paper, Kane’s method is used to find the equations of motion for a multi-body model of the human body standing on a vibration platform [4]. The model consists of nine rigid bodies connected by ideal joints that simulate the skeletal structure of the human body. Spring and damper elements represent the ligaments and tendons connecting the rigid bodies; a sinusoidal force function denotes the vibration input of the platform. This model is lumped, assuming no relative motion between the feet and the vibration platform. The equations of motion generated by Kane’s method are solved in MATLAB using fourth-order Runge-Kutta. The results from the simulation were compared to experimental data in order to validate the model.