Prediction of skull fractures in blunt force head traumas using finite element head models
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Prediction of skull fractures in blunt force head traumas using finite element head models. / Lindgren, Natalia; Henningsen, Mikkel J.; Jacobsen, Christina; Villa, Chiara; Kleiven, Svein; Li, Xiaogai.
In: Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology, Vol. 23, 2024, p. 207-225.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Prediction of skull fractures in blunt force head traumas using finite element head models
AU - Lindgren, Natalia
AU - Henningsen, Mikkel J.
AU - Jacobsen, Christina
AU - Villa, Chiara
AU - Kleiven, Svein
AU - Li, Xiaogai
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Traumatic head injuries remain a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Although skull fractures are one of the most common head injuries, the fundamental mechanics of cranial bone and its impact tolerance are still uncertain. In the present study, a strain-rate-dependent material model for cranial bone has been proposed and implemented in subject-specific Finite Element (FE) head models in order to predict skull fractures in five real-world fall accidents. The subject-specific head models were developed following an established image-registration-based personalization pipeline. Head impact boundary conditions were derived from accident reconstructions using personalized human body models. The simulated fracture lines were compared to those visible in post-mortem CT scans of each subject. In result, the FE models did predict the actual occurrence and extent of skull fractures in all cases. In at least four out of five cases, predicted fracture patterns were comparable to ones from CT scans and autopsy reports. The tensile material model, which was tuned to represent rate-dependent tensile data of cortical skull bone from literature, was able to capture observed linear fractures in blunt indentation loading of a skullcap specimen. The FE model showed to be sensitive to modeling parameters, in particular to the constitutive parameters of the cortical tables. Nevertheless, this study provides a currently lacking strain-rate dependent material model of cranial bone that has the capacity to accurately predict linear fracture patterns. For the first time, a procedure to reconstruct occurrences of skull fractures using computational engineering techniques, capturing the all-in-all fracture initiation, propagation and final pattern, is presented.
AB - Traumatic head injuries remain a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Although skull fractures are one of the most common head injuries, the fundamental mechanics of cranial bone and its impact tolerance are still uncertain. In the present study, a strain-rate-dependent material model for cranial bone has been proposed and implemented in subject-specific Finite Element (FE) head models in order to predict skull fractures in five real-world fall accidents. The subject-specific head models were developed following an established image-registration-based personalization pipeline. Head impact boundary conditions were derived from accident reconstructions using personalized human body models. The simulated fracture lines were compared to those visible in post-mortem CT scans of each subject. In result, the FE models did predict the actual occurrence and extent of skull fractures in all cases. In at least four out of five cases, predicted fracture patterns were comparable to ones from CT scans and autopsy reports. The tensile material model, which was tuned to represent rate-dependent tensile data of cortical skull bone from literature, was able to capture observed linear fractures in blunt indentation loading of a skullcap specimen. The FE model showed to be sensitive to modeling parameters, in particular to the constitutive parameters of the cortical tables. Nevertheless, this study provides a currently lacking strain-rate dependent material model of cranial bone that has the capacity to accurately predict linear fracture patterns. For the first time, a procedure to reconstruct occurrences of skull fractures using computational engineering techniques, capturing the all-in-all fracture initiation, propagation and final pattern, is presented.
KW - Accident reconstruction
KW - Finite element head model
KW - Head injury mechanisms
KW - Injury prediction
KW - Skull fracture
U2 - 10.1007/s10237-023-01768-5
DO - 10.1007/s10237-023-01768-5
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37656360
AN - SCOPUS:85169305371
VL - 23
SP - 207
EP - 225
JO - Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology
JF - Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology
SN - 1617-7959
ER -
ID: 367255950