A theoretical analysis of stress wave propagation in the head under primary blast loading.
Traumatic brain injury due to primary blast loading has become a signature injury in recent military conflicts. Efforts have been made to study the stress wave propagation in the head. However, the relationship of incident pressure, reflected pressure and intracranial pressure is still not clear, and the experimental findings reported in the literature are contradictory. In this article, an analytical model is developed to calculate the stress wave transfer through a multiple-layered structure which is used to mimic the head. The model predicts stress at the scalp-skull and skull-brain interfaces as the functions of reflected pressure, which is further dependent on incident pressure. A numerical model is used to corroborate the theoretical predictions. It is concluded that scalp has an amplification effect on intracranial pressure. If scalp is absent, there exists a critical incident pressure, defined as Pcrat approximately 16 kPa. When peak incident pressure σinis higher than 16 kPa, the pressure at the skull-brain interface is greater than σin; otherwise, it is lower than σin.
Bioengineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA fengzhume@gmail.com.
Feng
F
Zhu
Bioengineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
Clifford C
CC
Chou
Bioengineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
King H
KH
Yang
Bioengineering Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
Albert I
AI
King
Shock wave; analytical modeling; blast-induced traumatic brain injury; multiple-layered structure; reflection