Citation

Fritton JC, Rubin CT, Qin YX, McLeod KJ. Ann. Biomed. Eng. 1997; 25(5): 831-839.

Affiliation

Department of Orthopaedics, SUNY, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9300107

Abstract

Whole-body vibration (WBV) has been demonstrated to have a strong influence on physiological systems, ranging from severely destructive to potentially beneficial. Unfortunately, the study of WBV in a controlled manner is commonly constrained by space and budgetary factors, particularly where vibration in the low frequency range is considered. In the work presented here, a small, low-cost device for performing WBV of the human skeleton is developed to assist in studies of vertical acceleration in a clinical setting. The device design consists of a spring-supported plate driven by an 18 N peak-force electromagnetic actuator, and the associated driving and monitoring electronics. Animal and human lumped-mass models have been coupled with a model of the loading device to seek a resonance response in the vicinity of 30 Hz. This approach minimizes the loading requirements of such a device, and thus a major component of the cost, yet can provide peak accelerations of 0.15 g at a frequency of 30 Hz in a small, lightweight package capable of use in a clinical or laboratory setting.

Language: en