Ziejewski 1 DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF HEAD UNDER VEHICLE CRASH LOADING

In this paper, a three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear finite element (FE) method is used in association with the Articulated Total Body (ATB) biodynamics method, to study the human brain response under dynamic loading. The FE formulation includes the detailed model of the skull, brain, cerebral-spinal fluid (CSF), dura mater, pia mater, falx and tentorium membranes. The brain is modeled as viscoelastic material, whereas, a linear elastic material model is assumed for all other tissue components. Proper contact and compatibility conditions between different components are assumed. Instead of direct contact, inertial load resulting from the acceleration and deceleration of the head mass system is implemented. The ATB biodynamic package is used to simulate real vehicle impact scenarios, and to extract the six translation and rotation acceleration data at the center of the mass of the head component. These six-degrees of freedom (6-DOF) kinematic descriptions are used to represent the inflicted inertial loadings. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) outcomes, from two incidents with head impact, are compared with the biomechanical FE simulations to present the model capabilities. To examine and verify the material parameters used in FE formulations, experiments are conducted on a simulated brain material made from silicon dielectric gel. The results support that the combination of the FE deformation analysis and the ATB rigid body model is an effective method in head impact analysis and traumatic brain injury (TBI) identification.