Finite element model of human skull used for head injury criteria assessment

Jiroušek, Ondrej; Jíra, Josef; Jírová, Jitka; Micka, Michal

Affiliations

¹Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prosecká 76, 190 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic

²Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Czech Technical University in Prague, Konviktská 20, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

Abstract and keywords

Development and validation of detailed 3-D finite element model of human skull used for explicit dynamic simulation of impact conditions is presented in the paper. The FEmodel is based on the series of computer tomography scans of resolution 512x512 pixels taken in 1mm slices. Fully automated direct generation of the volumetric tetrahedral mesh based on the Marching Cubes Algorithm, Laplacian smoothing and Delaunay tetrahedralisation is used to develop the geometry of both the human skull and the brain.

Results obtained using this detailed FE model are compared to experimental results from a standard drop test as well as a simplified version of the skull model based on geometry of a head form used in our experiments. These experiments use a standard metal head form of variable size. Results from both the experimental and numerical modelling will be used to describe possible injury mechanisms and quantify design parameters of protective helmet related to a specific impact event.

Keywords: drop test, Finite Element Method (FEM), medical imaging, mesh generation, explicit dynamics, head injury criteria

Links

DOI: 10.1007/1-4020-3796-1_47

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Cited By (1)

Year	Entry
2016	Miller LE, Urban JE, Stitzel JD. An anatomically accurate finite element brain model: development, validation and comparison to existing models. In: Proceedings of the 12th Ohio State University Injury Biomechanics Symposium. June 5-7, 2016; Columbus, OH.