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Multi-Scale Modeling of Head Kinematics and Brain Tissue Response to Blast Exposure

  • State-of-the-Art Modeling and Simulation of the Brain's Response to Mechanical Loads
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Abstract

Injuries resulting from blast exposure have been increasingly prevalent in recent conflicts, with a particular focus on the risk of head injury. In the current study, a multibody model (GEBOD) was used to investigate the gross kinematics resulting from blast exposure, including longer duration events such as the fall and ground impact. Additionally, detailed planar head models, in the sagittal and transverse planes, were used to model the primary blast wave interaction with the head, and resulting tissue response. For severe blast load cases (scaled distance less than 2), the translational head accelerations during primary blast were found to increase as the height-of-burst (HOB) was lowered, while the HOB was found to have no effect for cases with scaled distance greater than 2. The HOB was found to affect both the magnitude and direction of rotational accelerations, with increasing magnitudes as the HOB deviated from the height of the head. The choice of ground contact stiffness was found to greatly affect the predicted head accelerations during ground impact. For a medium soil ground material, the kinematics during ground impact were greater for scaled distances exceeding 1.5, below which the primary blast produced greater kinematic head response.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the DND/NSERC supplement for financial support, and Compute Canada for providing the necessary computing resources.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of MME, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Dilaver Singh & Duane Cronin

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  1. Dilaver Singh
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  2. Duane Cronin
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Correspondence to Duane Cronin.

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Associate Editor Matthew B. Panzer oversaw the review of this article.

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Appendix: Exemplar Case of Linear and Rotational Acceleration Response

Appendix: Exemplar Case of Linear and Rotational Acceleration Response

The acceleration response curves for an exemplar case (10 kg of C4 at 4 m standoff and 0.2 m HOB) is shown in detail. The linear acceleration (Fig. 11) and rotational acceleration (Fig. 12) are presented, with the primary blast and first ground impact portions of the response shown in detail.

Figure 11
figure 11

Linear acceleration curves for (a) primary blast and (b) first ground impact for 10 kg of C4 at 4 m standoff with 0.2 m HOB.

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Figure 12
figure 12

Rotational acceleration curves for (a) primary blast and (b) first ground impact for 10 kg of C4 at 4 m standoff with 0.2 m HOB.

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Singh, D., Cronin, D. Multi-Scale Modeling of Head Kinematics and Brain Tissue Response to Blast Exposure. Ann Biomed Eng 47, 1993–2004 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-018-02193-x

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