ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the procedure of testing protective devices using simulations in virtual environments. Statistics show that the number of accidents occurring at work still remains high, causing both large social costs and losses on the part of employers, which results in increased production costs. The numerical reconstruction of an accident at work is based on the reproduction of a real accident event by using a computer simulation. In general, this may apply to a very wide spectrum of issues, such as thermal or acoustic. There are many commercial packages available on the market for the numerical modeling of mechanical and biomechanical phenomena. Numerical models of the human body are most often developed on the basis of real mannequins used in crash tests.
