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Parametric Comparisons of Intracranial Mechanical Responses from Three Validated Finite Element Models of the Human Head

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Abstract

A number of human head finite element (FE) models have been developed from different research groups over the years to study the mechanisms of traumatic brain injury. These models can vary substantially in model features and parameters, making it important to evaluate whether simulation results from one model are readily comparable with another, and whether response-based injury thresholds established from a specific model can be generalized when a different model is employed. The purpose of this study is to parametrically compare regional brain mechanical responses from three validated head FE models to test the hypothesis that regional brain responses are dependent on the specific head model employed as well as the region of interest (ROI). The Dartmouth Scaled and Normalized Model (DSNM), the Simulated Injury Monitor (SIMon), and the Wayne State University Head Injury Model (WSUHIM) were selected for comparisons. For model input, 144 unique kinematic conditions were created to represent the range of head impacts sustained by male collegiate hockey players during play. These impacts encompass the 50th, 95th, and 99th percentile peak linear and rotational accelerations at 16 impact locations around the head. Five mechanical variables (strain, strain rate, strain × strain rate, stress, and pressure) in seven ROIs reported from the FE models were compared using Generalized Estimating Equation statistical models. Highly significant differences existed among FE models for nearly all output variables and ROIs. The WSUHIM produced substantially higher peak values for almost all output variables regardless of the ROI compared to the DSNM and SIMon models (p < 0.05). DSNM also produced significantly different stress and pressure compared with SIMon for all ROIs (p < 0.05), but such differences were not consistent across ROIs for other variables. Regardless of FE model, most output variables were highly correlated with linear and rotational peak accelerations. The significant disparities in regional brain responses across head models regardless of the output variables strongly suggest that model-predicted brain responses from one study should not be extended to other studies in which a different model is utilized. Consequently, response-based injury tolerance thresholds from a specific model should not be generalized to other studies either in which a different model is used. However, the similar relationships between regional responses and the linear/rotational peak accelerations suggest that each FE model can be used independently to assess regional brain responses to impact simulations in order to perform statistical correlations with medical images and/or well-selected experiments with documented injury findings.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Erik Takhounts for providing support with the SIMon model. This work was supported by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE 07-04, 14-19) and by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health (R01HD048638). HIT System technology was developed in part under NIH R44HD40473 and research and development support from Riddell, Inc. (Chicago, IL).

Conflict of interest

Richard M. Greenwald, Jonathan G. Beckwith, and Simbex have a financial interest in the instruments [HIT System, Sideline Response System (Riddell, Inc.)] that were used to collect data used in this study. The remaining authors have no financial interests associated with this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, 14 Engineering Drive, Hanover, NH, 03755, USA

    Songbai Ji, Hamidreza Ghadyani, Keith D. Paulsen & Richard M. Greenwald

  2. Department of Surgery, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Songbai Ji

  3. Simbex, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Richard P. Bolander, Jonathan G. Beckwith & Richard M. Greenwald

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, USA

    James C. Ford, Thomas W. McAllister & Laura A. Flashman

  5. Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Biostatistics Research Center, UCSD, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Karin Ernstrom, Sonia Jain & Rema Raman

  6. Department of Neurosciences, UCSD, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Rema Raman

  7. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Liying Zhang

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  1. Songbai Ji
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Correspondence to Songbai Ji.

Additional information

Associate Editor Stefan M Duma oversaw the review of this article.

Appendices

Appendices

The following tables report comparisons of the meshes and runtimes (Table A1) and the material properties for the various components of the brain (Tables A2–A4) for the three models.

Table A1 Comparisons of model meshes, brain-skull BCs, and runtimes for the three head FE models (all solid elements are hexahedral)
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Table A2 Comparisons of volumes of major model components for the three head FE models (units in cc)
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Table A3 Hyperelastic and viscoelastic material model (identical to the “average model” used in Kleiven22) for the whole-brain in DSNM showing the Ogden constants (μ i and α i ) and Prony series constants (g i and τ i ) in Abaqus convention
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Table A4 Viscoelastic material properties for the brain used in SIMon
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Table A5 Viscoelastic material properties for the brain components for WSUHIM
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Ji, S., Ghadyani, H., Bolander, R.P. et al. Parametric Comparisons of Intracranial Mechanical Responses from Three Validated Finite Element Models of the Human Head. Ann Biomed Eng 42, 11–24 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-013-0907-2

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