MODELING OF THE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IN A VIBRATIONAL MEDIUM

Abstract

Vibration is most simply defined as oscillating motion. It could be periodic or nonperiodic. Repeated loading of the lumbar spine occurs in activities of daily living like lifting and driving. The chronic exposure results in mechanical and chemical changes in the spinal components leading to spinal degeneration. In a chronic vibration environment, the prevalence of low-back problems is dependent on a host of factors including subject age, subject posture, magnitude of input vibration, and exposure time. It is imperative that efforts be made to understand the effects of wholebody vibration on the spine and how these can be prevented. This paper focuses on the contributions of the mathematical models in this area.