Biomechanical analysis of blast-induced traumatic brain injury

  Purpose: 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.   Materials and Methods: 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 tissuewere obtained from   the literature.   Results: 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.   Conclusion: 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.