Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Measurement of brain simulant strains in head surrogate under impact loading

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Impact-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major source of disability and mortality. Knowledge of brain strains during impact (accelerative) loading is critical for the overall management of TBI, including the development of injury thresholds, personal protective equipment, and validation of computational models. Despite these needs, the current understanding of brain strains in humans or humanlike surrogates is limited, especially for injury causing loading magnitudes. Toward this end, we measured full-field, in-plane (2D) strains in a brain simulant using the hemispherical head surrogate. The hemispherical head was mounted on the Hybrid-III neck and subjected to impact loading using a linear impactor system. The resulting head kinematics was measured using a triaxial accelerometer and angular rate sensors. Dynamic, 2D strains in a brain simulant were obtained using high-speed imaging and digital image correlation. Concurrent finite element (FE) simulations of the experiment were also performed to gain additional insights. The role of stiff membranes of the head was also studied using experiments. Our results suggest that rotational modes dominate the response of the brain simulant. The wave propagation in the brain simulant as a result of impact has a timescale of ~100 ms. We obtain peak strains of ~20%, ~40%, ~60% for peak rotational accelerations of ~838, ~5170, ~11,860 rad/s2, respectively. Further, peak strains in cortical regions are higher than subcortical regions by up to ~70%. The agreement between the experiments and FE simulations is reasonable in terms of spatiotemporal evolution of strain pattern and peak strain magnitudes. Experiments with the addition of falx and tentorium indicate significant strain concentration (up to 115%) in the brain simulant near the interface of falx or tentorium and brain simulant. Overall, this work provides important insights into the biomechanics of strain in the brain simulant during impact loading.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alshareef A, Giudice JS, Forman J, Salzar RS, Panzer MB (2018) A novel method for quantifying human in situ whole brain deformation under rotational loading using sonomicrometry. J Neurotrauma 35:780–789

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartsch A, Benzel E, Miele V, Morr D, Prakash V (2012) Hybrid III anthropomorphic test device (ATD) response to head impacts and potential implications for athletic headgear testing. Accid Anal Prevent 48:285–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayly PV, Cohen TS, Leister EP, Ajo D, Leuthardt EC, Genin GM (2005) Deformation of the human brain induced by mild acceleration. J Neurotrauma 22:845–856. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2005.22.845

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayly PV, Massouros PG, Christoforou E, Sabet A, Genin GM (2008) Magnetic resonance measurement of transient shear wave propagation in a viscoelastic gel cylinder. J Mech Phys Solids 56:2036–2049. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmps.2007.10.012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayly PV, Clayton EH, Genin GM (2012) Quantitative imaging methods for the development and validation of brain biomechanics models. Ann Rev Biomed Eng 14:369

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaber J, Adair B, Antoniou A (2015) Ncorr: open-source 2D digital image correlation matlab software. Exp Mech 55:1105–1122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blaber J, Antoniou A (2017) Ncorr instruction manual version 1.2.2.

  • Bradshaw D, Ivarsson J, Morfey C, Viano DC (2001) Simulation of acute subdural hematoma and diffuse axonal injury in coronal head impact. J Biomech 34:85–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camarillo DB, Shull PB, Mattson J, Shultz R, Garza D (2013) An instrumented mouthguard for measuring linear and angular head impact kinematics in American football. Ann Biomed Eng 41:1939–1949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlsen RW, Daphalapurkar NP (2015) The importance of structural anisotropy in computational models of traumatic brain injury. Front Neurol 6:28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chafi MS, Ganpule S, Gu L, Chandra N (2011) Dynamic response of brain subjected to blast loadings: influence of frequency ranges. Int J Appl Mech 3:803–823

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chamard E, Lefebvre G, Lassonde M, Theoret H (2016) Long-term abnormalities in the corpus callosum of female concussed athletes. J Neurotrauma 33:1220–1226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chan DD et al (2018) Statistical characterization of human brain deformation during mild angular acceleration measured in vivo by tagged magnetic resonance imaging. J Biomech Eng 140:101005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chanda A, Unnikrishnan V, Flynn Z, Lackey K (2017) Experimental study on tissue phantoms to understand the effect of injury and suturing on human skin mechanical properties. Proc Instit Mech Eng H J Eng Med 231:80–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chatelin S, Constantinesco A, Willinger R (2010) Fifty years of brain tissue mechanical testing: from in vitro to in vivo investigations. Biorheology 47:255–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chu T, Ranson W, Sutton MA (1985) Applications of digital-image-correlation techniques to experimental mechanics. Exp Mech 25:232–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutrisac S, Brannen M, Hoshizaki B, Frei H, Petel OE (2021) A parametric analysis of embedded tissue marker properties and their effect on the accuracy of displacement measurements

  • Eierud C, Craddock RC, Fletcher S, Aulakh M, King-Casas B, Kuehl D, LaConte SM (2014) Neuroimaging after mild traumatic brain injury: review and meta-analysis. NeuroImage Clin 4:283–294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forte A, Damico F, Charalambides M, Dini D, Williams J (2015) Modelling and experimental characterisation of the rate dependent fracture properties of gelatine gels. Food Hydrocol 46:180–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fung Y-C (2013) Biomechanics: mechanical properties of living tissues. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganpule S, Daphalapurkar NP, Ramesh KT, Knutsen AK, Pham DL, Bayly PV, Prince JL (2017) A three-dimensional computational human head model that captures live human brain dynamics. J Neurotrauma 34:2154–2166. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2016.4744

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardner A et al (2012) A systematic review of diffusion tensor imaging findings in sports-related concussion. J Neurotrauma 29:2521–2538

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giordano C, Kleiven S (2014) Evaluation of axonal strain as a predictor for mild traumatic brain injuries using finite element modeling. Stapp Car Crash J 58:29

    Google Scholar 

  • Giordano C, Cloots R, Van Dommelen J, Kleiven S (2014) The influence of anisotropy on brain injury prediction. J Biomech 47:1052–1059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goriely A et al (2015) Mechanics of the brain: perspectives, challenges, and opportunities. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 14:931–965

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham D, Adams JH, Nicoll J, Maxwell W, Gennarelli T (1995) The nature, distribution and causes of traumatic brain injury. Brain Pathol 5:397–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grédiac M, Hild F (2012) Full-field measurements and identification in solid mechanics. Wiley, Hoboken

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Hajiaghamemar M, Margulies SS (2021) Multi-scale white matter tract embedded brain finite element model predicts the location of traumatic diffuse axonal injury. J Neurotrauma 38:144–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hajiaghamemar M, Wu T, Panzer MB, Margulies SS (2020) Embedded axonal fiber tracts improve finite element model predictions of traumatic brain injury. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 19:1109–1130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hardy WN et al (2007) A study of the response of the human cadaver head to impact. Stapp Car Crash J 51:17

    Google Scholar 

  • Hernandez F, Giordano C, Goubran M, Parivash S, Grant G, Zeineh M, Camarillo D (2019) Lateral impacts correlate with falx cerebri displacement and corpus callosum trauma in sports-related concussions. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 18:631–649

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herweh C et al (2016) Reduced white matter integrity in amateur boxers. Neuroradiology 1:10

    Google Scholar 

  • Hyder AA, Wunderlich CA, Puvanachandra P, Gururaj G, Kobusingye OC (2007) The impact of traumatic brain injuries: a global perspective. NeuroRehabilitation 22:341–353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ibrahim NG, Natesh R, Szczesny SE, Ryall K, Eucker SA, Coats B, Margulies SS (2010) In situ deformations in the immature brain during rapid rotations. J Biomech Eng 132:044501

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji S et al (2015) Group-wise evaluation and comparison of white matter fiber strain and maximum principal strain in sports-related concussion. J Neurotrauma 32:441–454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones EM, Iadicola MA (2018) A good practices guide for digital image correlation. Int Dig Image Correl Soc

  • Knutsen AK, Bayly PV, Butman JA, Pham DL (2020a) 3D brain deformation in cadaveric specimens compared to healthy volunteers under non-injurious loading conditions. In: Computational biomechanics for medicine. Springer, New York

  • Knutsen AK et al (2020b) In vivo estimates of axonal stretch and 3D brain deformation during mild head impact. Brain Multiphys 1:100015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwon J, Subhash G (2010) Compressive strain rate sensitivity of ballistic gelatin. J Biomech 43:420–425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lauret C, Hrapko M, Van Dommelen J, Peters G, Wismans J (2009) Optical characterization of acceleration-induced strain fields in inhomogeneous brain slices. Med Eng Phys 31:392–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LePage W https://digitalimagecorrelation.org/

  • Li J, Zhang J, Yoganandan N, Pintar F, Gennarelli T (2007) Regional brain strains and role of falx in lateral impact-induced head rotational acceleration. Biomed Sci Instrum 43:24–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Li X, Zhou Z, Kleiven S (2021) An anatomically detailed and personalizable head injury model: significance of brain and white matter tract morphological variability on strain. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 20:403–431

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mao H et al (2013) Development of a finite element human head model partially validated with thirty five experimental cases. J Biomech Eng 135:111002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Margulies SS, Thibault LE, Gennarelli TA (1990) Physical model simulations of brain injury in the primate. J Biomech 23:823–836

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McElhaney JH, Fogle JL, Melvin JW, Haynes RR, Roberts VL, Alem NM (1970) Mechanical properties of cranial bone. J Biomech 3:495–511

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meaney DF, Smith DH, Shreiber DI, Bain AC, Miller RT, Ross DT, Gennarelli TA (1995) Biomechanical analysis of experimental diffuse axonal injury. J Neurotrauma 12:689–694

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meaney DF, Morrison B, Bass CD (2014) The mechanics of traumatic brain injury: a review of what we know and what we need to know for reducing its societal burden. J Biomech Eng 136:021008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meier TB, Bergamino M, Bellgowan PS, Teague TK, Ling JM, Jeromin A, Mayer AR (2016) Longitudinal assessment of white matter abnormalities following sports-related concussion. Hum Brain Map 37:833–845

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murugavel M, Cubon V, Putukian M, Echemendia R, Cabrera J, Osherson D, Dettwiler A (2014) A longitudinal diffusion tensor imaging study assessing white matter fiber tracts after sports-related concussion. J Neurotrauma 31:1860–1871

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicolle S, Lounis M, Willinger R (2004) Shear properties of brain tissue over a frequency range relevant for automotive impact situations: new experimental results. Stapp Car Crash J 48:239–258

    Google Scholar 

  • Nie X, Prabhu R, Chen W, Caruthers JM, Weerasooriya T (2011) A Kolsky torsion bar technique for characterization of dynamic shear response of soft materials. Exp Mech 51:1527–1534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nishimoto T, Murakami S (1998) Relation between diffuse axonal injury and internal head structures on blunt impact. J Biomech Eng 120:140–147. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2834294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pan B, Li K (2011) A fast digital image correlation method for deformation measurement. Opt Lasers Eng 49:841–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richler D, Rittel D (2014) On the testing of the dynamic mechanical properties of soft gelatins. Exp Mech 54:805–815

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowson S et al (2012) Rotational head kinematics in football impacts: an injury risk function for concussion. Ann Biomed Eng 40:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-011-0392-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sabet AA, Christoforou E, Zatlin B, Genin GM, Bayly PV (2008) Deformation of the human brain induced by mild angular head acceleration. J Biomech 41:307–315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2007.09.016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salisbury C, Cronin D (2009) Mechanical properties of ballistic gelatin at high deformation rates. Exp Mech 49:829

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schreier H, Orteu J-J, Sutton MA (2009) Image correlation for shape, motion and deformation measurements: basic concepts, theory and applications, vol 1. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw NA (2002) The neurophysiology of concussion. Prog Neurobiol 67:281–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shergold OA, Fleck NA, Radford D (2006) The uniaxial stress versus strain response of pig skin and silicone rubber at low and high strain rates. Int J Impact Eng 32:1384–1402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shreiber D, Gennarelli TA, Meaney D (1995) The incidence of cerebral contusions in the human: a physical modeling study. In: Proceedings of the international research council on the biomechanics of injury conference. International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury, pp 233–244

  • Smith DR, Guertler CA, Okamoto RJ, Romano AJ, Bayly PV, Johnson CL (2020) Multi-excitation magnetic resonance elastography of the brain: wave propagation in anisotropic white matter. J Biomech Eng 142:071005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright RM, Post A, Hoshizaki B, Ramesh KT (2013) A multiscale computational approach to estimating axonal damage under inertial loading of the head. J Neurotrauma 30:102–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang KH, King AI (2011) Modeling of the brain for injury simulation and prevention. Biomechanics of the brain. Springer, New York, pp 91–110

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao W, Ji S (2019) White matter anisotropy for impact simulation and response sampling in traumatic brain injury. J Neurotrauma 36:250–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao W, Ji S (2020) Displacement-and strain-based discrimination of head injury models across a wide range of blunt conditions. Ann Biomed Eng 48:1661–1677

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao W, Ford JC, Flashman LA, McAllister TW, Ji S (2016) White matter injury susceptibility via fiber strain evaluation using whole-brain tractography. J Neurotrauma 33:1834–1847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao W, Choate B, Ji S (2018) Material properties of the brain in injury-relevant conditions–Experiments and computational modeling. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater 80:222–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao W, Wu Z, Ji S (2021) Displacement error propagation from embedded markers to brain strain. J Biomech Eng 143:101001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou Z, Li X, Kleiven S, Shah CS, Hardy WN (2018) A reanalysis of experimental brain strain data: implication for finite element head model validation. Stapp Car Crash J 293:318

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou Z, Li X, Kleiven S, Hardy WN (2019) Brain strain from motion of sparse markers. Stapp Car Crash J 1:27

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Authors thank Dr. A. K. Knutsen and Dr. D. L. Pham of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine for providing statistical strain data in human volunteers. We thank Dr. M. M. Joglekar and Dr. Sunil Sutar for proofreading the final manuscript. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their detailed reviews and constructive suggestions that have helped in improving the manuscript. SGG acknowledges financial support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the grant ECR-2017-000417. AS and MKK acknowledge fellowship from the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India

    A. Singh & S. G. Ganpule

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, India

    M. K. Khan & M. A. Iqbal

Authors
  1. A. Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. G. Ganpule
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. K. Khan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. A. Iqbal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. G. Ganpule.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (MP4 735 kb)

Supplementary file2 (DOCX 14623 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Singh, A., Ganpule, S.G., Khan, M.K. et al. Measurement of brain simulant strains in head surrogate under impact loading. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 20, 2319–2334 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-021-01509-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-021-01509-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation