Biomechanical analysis of blast-induced traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT

Blast-induced traumatic brain injury [bTBI] is one of the causes of death or permanent invalidity which can occur unexpectedly in both military and civilian populations. This study set out to conduct a combined Eulerian-Lagrangian computational analysis of the interaction between a single planar blast wave and a human head in order to assess the extent of intracranial shock wave generation and its potential for causing traumatic brain injury. To investigate the mechanical response of human brain to blast waves and to identify the injury mechanisms of TBI, a three-dimensional finite elementhead model consisting of the scalp, skull, cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] and brain was developed from the imaging data of a human head.The mechanical properties of brain tissue were obtained from the literature. Throughout the loading regime, CSF acted as a protective layer for brain tissue by absorbing shear strain energy. Biomechanical loading of the brain was governed by direct wave transmission, structural deformations, and wave reflections from tissue-material interfaces. The brain experiences a complex set of direct and indirect loadings emanating from different sources [reflections from tissue interfaces and skull deformation] at different points of time. The flow dynamics strongly depend on geometry [shape, curvature] and structure [flexural rigidity, thickness] of a specimen and should be considered in understanding biomechanical loading pattern.