Effects of head size and morphology on dynamic responses to impact loading

Abstract

Head responses subjected to impact loading are studied using the finite element method. The dynamic responses of the stress, strain, strain energy density and the intracranial pressure govern the intracranial tissues and skull material failures, and therefore, the traumatic injuries. The objectivity and consistency of the prevailing head traumatic injury criteria, i.e., the energy absorption, the gravity centre acceleration and the head injury criterion (HIC), are examined with regard to the head dynamic responses. In particular, the structural intensity (STI) (the vector representation of energy flow rate) is calculated and discussed. From the simulations, the STI, instead of the gravity centre acceleration, the HIC and the energy absorption criteria, is found to be consistent with the dynamic response quantities. The different local skull curvatures at impact have a marginal effect whereas the locations of the impact loadings have significant effects on the dynamics responses or the head injury. The STI also shows the failure patterns. © International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering 2007.