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Brain Injuries in Real-World Accidents-A Multidisciplinary Investigation
Technical Paper
2001-13-0014
Published October 10, 2001 by International Research Council on Biokinetics of Impact in Switzerland
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
A study of brain injury biomechanics has been conducted using
detailed reconstruction of real-world injury events. A total of
nineteen head injury cases were identified in neurosurgery wards of
two hospitals in Sweden. From these cases, nine were subjected to
detailed reconstruction techniques to quantify the head loading
causing the injuries. Output of the analyses included the
kinematics of the head and contact loads. Reconstructions of
vehicle and occupant dynamics were conducted primarily with
computer simulation tools with some limited mechanical testing
using vehicle components and Hybrid III dummies.
Results of the study indicate that computer simulation resources
are maturing to the point where useful biomechanical information
can be obtained through the reconstruction of injury events. The
flexibility of the computer models, compared to mechanical dummy
testing, is an attractive research approach. Objective evaluation
procedures were identified that allowed the quality of the
reconstruction to be assessed. Preliminary output of the brain
injury research indicated considerable rotational motions of the
head were involved in all the brain injuries investigated. Angular
accelerations above 5000 rad/s2 were always associated with brain
injuries and no head injury was attributed to pure linear
accelerations of the head.