Citation

Mediavilla Varas J, Philippens MMGM, Meijer SR, van den Berg AC, Sibma PC, van Bree JL, de Vries DV. Front. Neurol. 2011; 2(online): 58.

Affiliation

Physical Protection and Survivability, Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research Rijswijk, Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fneur.2011.00058

PMID

21960984

PMCID

PMC3177142

Abstract

Shock tube experiments and simulations are conducted with a spherical gelatin filled skull-brain surrogate, in order to study the mechanisms leading to blast induced mild traumatic brain injury. A shock tube including sensor system is optimized to simulate realistic improvised explosive device blast profiles obtained from full scale field tests. The response of the skull-brain surrogate is monitored using pressure and strain measurements. Fluid-structure interaction is modeled using a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations for the air blast, and a finite element model for the structural response. The results help to understand the physics of wave propagation, from air blast into the skull-brain. The presence of openings on the skull and its orientation does have a strong effect on the internal pressure. A parameter study reveals that when there is an opening in the skull, the skull gives little protection and the internal pressure is fairly independent on the skull stiffness; the gelatin shear stiffness has little effect on the internal pressure. Simulations show that the presence of pressure sensors in the gelatin hardly disturbs the pressure field.

Language: en