Modeling Blast-Related Brain Injury

Recent military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have highlighted the wartime effect of traumatic brain injury (TBI). While it is not clear why TBI has been so prominent in these particular conflicts, one reason may be that improvements in body armor have led to increased survivability of blasts. Closed traumatic brain injury covers a spectrum of central nervous system (CNS) injuries and mechanisms, but it is broadly characterized as mild (mTBI), moderate, or severe TBI, with mTBI occurring most frequently. Blunt, ballistic, and blast effects may all contribute to CNS injury,
but blast in particular has been suggested as a primary cause of military TBI. Little is currently known about the effects of blasts on the CNS; injury thresholds have not been established, and even direct transmission of the non-linear shock wave into the intra-cranial cavity and brain is disputed. In this study, we demonstrate the potential for a blast shockwave to directly affect the CNS using coupled computational fluid-solid dynamics simulation. The model includes a complex
finite element model of the head and intracranial contents. The effects of threshold and lethal blast lung injury were compared with concussive impact injury using the full head model.