Creating a human head finite element model using a multi-block approach for predicting skull response and brain pressure

Abstract

To better understand head injuries, human head finite element (FE) models have been reported in the literature. In scenarios where the head is directly impacted and measurements of head accelerations are not available, a high-quality skull model, as well as a high-quality brain model, is needed to predict the effect of impact on the brain through the skull. Furthermore, predicting cranial bone fractures requires comprehensively validated skull models. Lastly, high-quality meshes for both the skull and brain are needed for accurate strain/stress predictions across the entire head. Hence, we adopted a multi-block approach to develop hexahedral meshes for the brain, skull, and scalp simultaneously, a first approach in its kind. We then validated our model against experimental data of brain pressures (Nahum et al., 1977) and comprehensive skull responses (Yoganandan et al., 1995, Yoganandan et al., 2004, and Raymond et al., 2009). We concluded that a human head FE model was developed with capabilities to predict blunt- and ballistic-impact-induced skull fractures and pressure-related brain injuries.

Keywords:

• brain pressure
• finite element modeling
• human head injury
• multi-block approach
• skull response

Acknowledgment

We acknowledge the support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0802800), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (2016M592421) and the Educational Commission of Hunan Province of China (17A068). We also acknowledge the support from the Canada Research Chairs program. We thank Mr. Kewei Bian for his help in preparing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We acknowledge the support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0802800), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (2016M592421) and the Educational Commission of Hunan Province of China (17A068). We also acknowledge the support from the Canada Research Chairs program. We thank Mr. Kewei Bian for his help in preparing the manuscript.