Finite Element Analysis of Head Impact in Contact Sports

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the world’s major causes of death and disability. To aid companies in designing safer and improved protective gear and to aid the medical community in producing improved quantitative TBI diagnosis and assessment tools, a multiscale finite element model of the human brain, head and neck is being developed. Recorded impact data from football and hockey helmets instrumented with accelerometers are compared to simulated impact data in the laboratory. Using data from these carefully constructed laboratory experiments, we can quantify impact location, magnitude, and linear and angular accelerations of the head. The resultant forces and accelerations are applied to a fully meshed head-form created from MRI data by Simpleware. With appropriate material properties for each region of the headform, the Abaqus finite element model can determine the stresses, strains, and deformations in the brain. Simultaneously, an in-vitro cellular TBI criterion is being developed to be incorporated into the Abaqus models for the brain. The cell-based injury criterion functions in the same way as damage criteria for metals and other materials in that it predicts failure. Thus, for any given loading situation (blast, impact, or acceleration) a map showing the location and severity of tissue injury can be computed.