Development and validation of a head/brain FE model and investigation of influential factor on the brain response during head impact

Higher brain dysfunction due to traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by head rotational impact in traffic accidents is one of the most serious automotive safety problems. However, the injury mechanism still remains unclear. In this study, we developed two human head finite element (FE) models based on THUMS for further understanding of TBI mechanism. Parametric studies were performed to investigate the factors affecting brain tissue displacements and intracranial pressures during head impact by using these models. The mesh fineness, material properties of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and contact conditions between brain parenchyma and surrounding external organisation had little influence on validation accuracy against test data on brain responses of post mortem human subjects (PMHS). However, there were significant differences in the values of cumulative strain damage measure (CSDM) and the contours of strain distribution between these models. These findings have the potential for better understanding of TBI mechanism.