Altair > Case Studies > Developing an Injury Threshold for Human Brain Concussion using IoT

Developing an Injury Threshold for Human Brain Concussion using IoT

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Sensors - Haptic Sensors

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Life Sciences

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Digital Twin
Virtual Reality

Services

Testing & Certification

About The Customer

The customer in this case study is the Bioengineering Department at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. This department houses one of the largest continuously active biomedical research programs in the United States. For over 70 years, faculty and researchers have made significant biomedical advances through close collaboration between the Department and WSU’s School of Medicine. The Department’s Bioengineering Center is a leading laboratory focused on research into impact trauma, low back pain, and sports injury biomechanics. Current projects include vehicle side and rear impact crashworthiness analysis, head injury modeling, and lower extremity injury simulation.

The Challenge

The Bioengineering Department at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, was faced with the challenge of developing a complete understanding of injury mechanisms for mild traumatic brain injury or concussions. The goal was to prevent or mitigate injury occurrence. Traumatic brain injuries constitute a significant portion of injury resulting from vehicle crash and sports collisions. The department aimed to develop strategies to prevent and mitigate these injuries, which can reduce the heavy emotional, economic, and social price of these injuries for future products. The department had previously developed head injury protection standards based on tolerance curves derived from animal concussion test acceleration results and cadaveric skull fractures. However, these standards could not account for the complex motion of the brain within a deformable skull, neglecting the contribution of angular head acceleration to injury causation and the directional sensitivity of the head.

The Solution

The solution was to establish a meaningful injury criterion through the use of field concussion data and finite element modeling of the head based on Altair HyperMesh. The Bioengineering Center developed a computational model for brain injury, recognized by the Smithsonian Institution with the Computer World Smithsonian Medal. The Wayne State University Head Injury Model (WSUHIM) was developed, capable of simulating fine anatomic detail and tissue-level characteristics for impacts leading to injury. The model simulates all essential features of a 50th percentile male head, including 15 different material properties for the brain and surrounding tissues. The model was used in a study to improve mesh quality and material definitions. The cranium of the modified FE model was loaded by translational and rotational accelerations measured from 24 laboratory head impact reconstructions.

Operational Impact

The operational results of this solution were significant. The finite element simulations allowed for predictions of the intracranial pressure distribution and local stress/strain of intracranial mechanical responses for a given input associated with either a concussion or a non-injury event. The mechanical response parameters of intracranial pressure and brain shear stress, both predicted by the simulation model, were selected as the most promising indicators of MTBI. The study concluded that intracranial pressure can serve as a global response indicator for MTBI and that high translational shear stress concentrations were found to be localized in the upper brain stem and thalamus regions. The induced shear stress may alter brain function leading to mild brain injury. The solution also proposed an injury tolerance based on head kinematics, applicable to football and across a broad range of activities.

Quantitative Benefit

Approximately 2 million TBI cases occur each year, the solution aims to reduce this number significantly.
The WSUHIM model has fine anatomic detail of the cranium and brain with more than 300,000 HyperMesh elements.
The cranium of the modified FE model was loaded by translational and rotational accelerations measured from 24 laboratory head impact reconstructions.