Abstract
This work presents the generation and validation of a Finite Element (FE) simulation framework to study Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) resulting from blast loading of the human head. The framework involves a multi-step modeling approach: first, reflected pressures are collected from discrete regions around a rigid head geometry (within a gaseous medium) in coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian blast simulations. Second, the obtained pressures are applied as region-specific discrete surface loads to the surface of a deformable FE human head model in separate Lagrangian simulations, allowing the blast effects to deform the brain geometry. This multi-step approach is used to generate shock tube loading simulations of two FE head and brain geometries featuring two classes of brain constitutive models (hyperelastic-viscoplastic Internal State Variable (ISV) model and Prony series viscoelastic model). Simulation results for coup and contrecoup brain pressures generally agree with documented intracranial pressure measurements from shock tube testing of human cadaver heads for model framework validation. Methods for obtaining and comparing brain mechanical state variable evolution to literature, documented material state metrics for TBI, and the implications and challenges for predicting blast induced TBI are discussed.
