Buckling Analysis -- A Modal Method of Estimating Cervical Spine Injury Potential

The whole straightened ligamentous cervical spinal column (C0/C1-T1) was represented by a three-dimensional segmented beam-column computer model, where vertebral bodies were treated as three-dimensional rigid body elements and intervertebral joints as three-dimensional joint elements having stiffness in axial compression-tension, antero-posterior and lateral shears, and flexural rotations (flexion-extension and lateral bending). Buckling modal analysis of this model estimated the potential responses of the cervical spine subjected to “axial” head impact. The calculated theoretical buckling loads are in agreement with the peak forces obtained in some of the in vitro cadaveric experiments of the cervical spine subjected to axial compressive loading.