1st Edition

Forensic Biomechanics and Human Injury Criminal and Civil Applications - An Engineering Approach

By Harold Franck, Darren Franck Copyright 2016
    278 Pages
    by CRC Press

    278 Pages 108 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Forensic Biomechanics and Human Injury: Criminal and Civil Applications – An Engineering Approach provides a concise, comprehensive overview of human anatomy and the biomechanical factors involved in human injury. It describes the methodologies used to compute the various forces, stresses, and energies required to injure the human body.



    The book covers the theoretical mathematics behind understanding how injuries occur, classifying certain types of injuries, age and biomechanical factors, impact loading, injury investigation, and the importance of expert witnesses and testimony in civil and criminal cases. It contains a significant number of sizes of all the pertinent materials in the human body, classified by age, sex, and in some instances by race, as well as stress–strain curves and tables of the strengths of these materials.



    Forensic Biomechanics and Human Injury provides a valuable source of information with tools to help the professional determine the nature of injuries, understand the implications of accidents, and the calculations that go into determining such things for both civil and criminal investigations.

    Introduction. Court System and Testimony. How Injuries Occur. Types of Injuries. The Need for Analysis. Biomechanical Terminology. Basic Elements of Anatomy. Strength of Human Biological Materials. Mechanics of Materials. Material Sizes of Humans. Statics and Dynamics. Errors, Sensitivity, Uncertainty, and Probability. Protective Structures and Their Effect. Examples of Analysis. Federal and Other Standards. Appendices.

    Biography

    Harold Franck founded Advanced Engineering Associates Inc. in 1989 and since then he has been involved in thousands of forensic engineering investigations involving vehicle accident reconstruction, origin and cause fire investigations, and electrical incidents. He received his MSEE from West Virginia University and is a registered professional engineer in West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Florida. He has presented and attended various courses and seminars, lists many publications, and has completed two books, Forensic Engineering Fundamentals and Mathematical Methods for Accident Reconstruction.



    Darren Franck is president of Advanced Engineering Associates Inc. and is a registered professional engineer in West Virginia. He received his MSME from the Georgia Institute of Technology. His areas of expertise include forensic engineering investigations, structural analysis and design, accident reconstruction, computer-aided design, and 3D animations. He has been involved in various consulting, construction management, and design activities throughout West Virginia and is the coauthor of the two books completed by Harold Franck.