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Development and validation of a numerical model of the swine head subjected to open-field blasts

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Abstract

A finite element model of the head of a 55-kg Yucatan pig was developed to calculate the incident pressure and corresponding intracranial pressure due to the explosion of 8 lb (3.63 kg) of C4 at three different distances. The results from the model were validated by comparing findings with experimentally obtained data from five pigs at three different blast overpressure levels: low (150 kPa), medium (275 kPa), and high (400 kPa). The peak values of intracranial pressures from numerical model at different locations of the brain such as the frontal, central, left temporal, right temporal, parietal, and occipital regions were compared with experimental values. The model was able to predict the peak pressure with reasonable percentage differences. The differences for peak incident and intracranial pressure values between the simulation results and the experimental values were found to be less than 2.2 and 29.3%, respectively, at all locations other than the frontal region. Additionally, a series of parametric studies shows that the intracranial pressure was very sensitive to sensor locations, the presence of air bubbles, and reflections experienced during the experiments. Further efforts will be undertaken to correlate the different biomechanical response parameters, such as the intracranial pressure gradient, stress, and strain results obtained from the validated model with injured brain locations once the histology data become available.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Medical Research and Materiel Command of the US Army (Award No. W81XWH-12-2-0038).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bioengineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    A. Kalra, K. Feng, T. Saif, S. Kallakuri, X. Jin, K. Yang & A. King

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, USA

    F. Zhu

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Communicated by O. Petel and S. Ouellet.

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Kalra, A., Zhu, F., Feng, K. et al. Development and validation of a numerical model of the swine head subjected to open-field blasts. Shock Waves 27, 947–964 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-017-0760-6

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