Biomechanical Assessment of the Bridging Vein Rupture of Blast-Induced Traumatic Brain Injury Using the Finite Element Human Head Model

Author(s):  
Chenzhi Wang ◽  
Jae Bum Pahk ◽  
Carey D. Balaban ◽  
Joseph Muthu ◽  
David A. Vorp ◽  
...  

The incidence of the blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) among American troops in battle environments is dramatically high in recent years. Shock wave, a production of detonation, is a brief and acute overpressure wave that travels supersonically with a magnitude which can be several times higher than atmospheric pressure. Primary bTBI means that human exposure to shock wave itself without any other impact of solid objects can still result in the impairment of cerebral tissues. The mechanism of this type of brain injury is different from that of the conventional TBI, and has not been fully understood. So far, it is believed that the shock wave transmitted through skull and into cerebral tissues may induce specific injury patterns. This study is trying to develop a methodology to numerically investigate the mechanism of the blast-induced subdural hematoma (bSDH), which is caused by bridging vein rupture. The effort of this study can be divided to three major parts: first, a finite element (FE) model of human head is developed from the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a real human head to contain skull, CSF and brain. Numerically simulated shock waves transmits through the human head model whose mechanical responses are recorded; second, in order to obtain the mechanical properties of human bridging vein, an standard inflation test of blood vessels is conducted on a real human bridging vein sample gained from autopsy. Material parameters are found by fitting the experimental data to an anisotropic hyperelastic constitutive model for blood vessel (Gerhard A. Holzapfel 2000); third, The bridging vein rupture in bTBI is evaluated by the finite element analysis of a separate human bridging vein model under the external loadings in terms of the internal pressure and relative skull-brain motion which are extracted from the mechanical response of the subarachnoid space of the head in the blast-head simulation of the first part.

Author(s):  
Chenzhi Wang ◽  
Jae Bum Pahk ◽  
Carey D. Balaban ◽  
Jeffrey S. Vipperman

The occurrence of blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) in people serving in battle environments is dramatically high. The blast front, or leading edge of the shock wave is a brief, acute overpressure wave that travels supersonically with a magnitude that is several times higher than that of ambient. The shock wave propagates through the human head and injures intracranial tissues. Classical neuropathologic signs of bTBI include cerebral contusion, diffuse axonal injury, subdural hematoma (SDH) and subarachnoid hematoma, of which subdural hematoma is the most dominating sign of bTBI. Here, computational finite element (FE) modeling is used to investigate the mechanical process of bTBI. The overall goal of the present study is to find the injury threshold of the SDH injury due to bTBI, by investigating the biomechanical response of the bridging veins in the human brain under shock wave loading that originates from detonation. This research mainly develops a basic FE human head model which consists of skull and parts of the brain. The geometric models of skull and brain are developed from segmentations of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) files of a real human head. The boundary conditions on the neck and head are modeled as a displacement-fixed condition. The numerically simulated blast waves are applied on the human head model as external loading conditions. The internal response in the subarachnoid space is used as loadings on the bridging vein submodel. The maximum principal stress of the bridging vein is used to determine the whether there is failure of the bridging vein, thus estimating the “injury threshold” of SDH in bTBI. Results show that 150g TNT blast of 1 meter away from the head can result in a high possibility of SDH occurrence.


Author(s):  
G. Krishnaveni ◽  
D. Dominic Xavier ◽  
R. Sarathkumar ◽  
G. Kavitha ◽  
M. Senbagan

Because of increase in threat from militant groups and during war exposure to blast wave from improvised explosive devices, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), a signature injury is on rise worldwide. During blast, the biological system is exposed to a sudden blast over pressure which is several times higher than the ambient pressure causing the damage in the brain. The severity of TBI due to air blast may vary from brief change in mental status or consciousness (termed as mild) to extended period of unconsciousness or memory loss after injuries (termed as severe). The blast wave induced impact on head propagates as shock wave with the broad spectrum of frequencies and stress concentrations in the brain. The primary blast TBI is directly induced by pressure differentials across the skull/fluid/soft tissue interfaces and is further reinforced by the reflected stress waves within the cranial cavity, leading to stress concentrations in certain regions of the brain. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the behaviour of a human brain model subjected to blast wave based on finite element model using LSDYNA code. The parts of a typical human head such as skull, scalp, CSF, brain are modelled using finite element with properties assumed based on available literature. The model is subjected to blast from frontal lobe, occipital lobe, temporal lobe of the brain. The interaction of the blast wave with the head and subsequent transformation of various forms of shock energy internally have been demonstrated in the human head model. The brain internal pressure levels and the shear stress distribution in the various lobes of the brain such as frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital are determined and presented.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liying Zhang ◽  
King H. Yang ◽  
Ramesh Dwarampudi ◽  
Kiyoshi Omori ◽  
Tieliang Li ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 180319
Author(s):  
Awais Munawar Qureshi ◽  
Zartasha Mustansar ◽  
Samah Mustafa

In this paper, a detailed analysis of microwave (MW) scattering from a three-dimensional (3D) anthropomorphic human head model is presented. It is the first time that the finite-element method (FEM) has been deployed to study the MW scattering phenomenon of a 3D realistic head model for brain stroke detection. A major contribution of this paper is to add anatomically more realistic details to the human head model compared with the literature available to date. Using the MRI database, a 3D numerical head model was developed and segmented into 21 different types through a novel tissue-mapping scheme and a mixed-model approach. The heterogeneous and frequency-dispersive dielectric properties were assigned to brain tissues using the same mapping technique. To mimic the simulation set-up, an eight-elements antenna array around the head model was designed using dipole antennae. Two types of brain stroke (haemorrhagic and ischaemic) at various locations inside the head model were then analysed for possible detection and classification. The transmitted and backscattered signals were calculated by finding out the solution of the Helmholtz wave equation in the frequency domain using the FEM. FE mesh convergence analysis for electric field values and comparison between different types of iterative solver were also performed to obtain error-free results in minimal computational time. At the end, specific absorption rate analysis was conducted to examine the ionization effects of MW signals to a 3D human head model. Through computer simulations, it is foreseen that MW imaging may efficiently be exploited to locate and differentiate two types of brain stroke by detecting abnormal tissues’ dielectric properties. A significant contrast between electric field values of the normal and stroke-affected brain tissues was observed at the stroke location. This is a step towards generating MW scattering information for the development of an efficient image reconstruction algorithm.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Kwong Ming Tse ◽  
Daniel Holder

In this study, a novel expandable bicycle helmet, which integrates an airbag system into the conventional helmet design, was proposed to explore the potential synergetic effect of an expandable airbag and a standard commuter-type EPS helmet. The traumatic brain injury mitigation performance of the proposed expandable helmet was evaluated against that of a typical traditional bicycle helmet. A series of dynamic impact simulations on both a helmeted headform and a representative human head with different configurations were carried out in accordance with the widely recognised international bicycle helmet test standards. The impact simulations were initially performed on a ballast headform for validation and benchmarking purposes, while the subsequent ones on a biofidelic human head model were used for assessing any potential intracranial injury. It was found that the proposed expandable helmet performed admirably better when compared to a conventional helmet design—showing improvements in impact energy attenuation, as well as kinematic and biometric injury risk reduction. More importantly, this expandable helmet concept, integrating the airbag system in the conventional design, offers adequate protection to the cyclist in the unlikely case of airbag deployment failure.


Author(s):  
X. Gary Tan ◽  
Maria M. D’Souza ◽  
Subhash Khushu ◽  
Raj K. Gupta ◽  
Virginia G. DeGiorgi ◽  
...  

Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a very common injury to service members in recent conflicts. Computational models can offer insights in understanding the underlying mechanism of brain injury, which can aid in the development of effective personal protective equipment. This paper attempts to correlate simulation results with clinical data from advanced techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), functional MRI (fMRI), MR spectroscopy and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI), to identify TBI related subtle alterations in brain morphology, function and metabolism. High-resolution image data were obtained from the MRI scan of a young adult male, from a concussive head injury caused by a road traffic accident. The falling accident of human was modeled by combing high-resolution human head model with an articulated human body model. This mixed, multi-fidelity computational modeling approach can efficiently investigate such accident-related TBI. A high-fidelity computational head model was used to accurately reproduce the complex structures of the head. For most soft materials, the hyper-viscoelastic model was used to captures the strain rate dependence and finite strain nonlinearity. Stiffer materials, such as bony structure were simulated using an elasto-plastic material model to capture the permanent deformation. We used the enhanced linear tetrahedral elements to remove the parasitic locking problem in modeling such incompressible biological tissues. The bio-fidelity of human head model was validated from human cadaver tests. The accidental fall was reconstructed using such multi-fidelity models. The localized large deformation in the head was simulated and compared with the MRI images. The shear stress and shear strain were used to correlate with the post-accident medical images with respect to the injury location and severity in the brain. The correspondence between model results and MRI findings further validates the human head models and enhances our understanding of the mechanism, extent and impact of TBI.


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