Face shield design against blast-induced head injuries.
Blast-induced traumatic brain injury has been on the rise in recent years because of the increasing use of improvised explosive devices in conflict zones. Our study investigates the response of a helmeted human head subjected to a blast of 1 atm peak overpressure, for cases with and without a standard polycarbonate (PC) face shield and for face shields comprising of composite PC and aerogel materials and with lateral edge extension. The novel introduction of aerogel into the laminate face shield is explored and its wave-structure interaction mechanics and performance in blast mitigation is analysed. Our numerical results show that the face shield prevented direct exposure of the blast wave to the face and help delays the transmission of the blast to reduce the intracranial pressures (ICPs) at the parietal lobe. However, the blast wave can diffract and enter the midface region at the bottom and side edges of the face shield, resulting in traumatic brain injury. This suggests that the bottom and sides of the face shield are important regions to focus on to reduce wave ingress. The laminated PC/aerogel/PC face shield yielded higher peak positive and negative ICPs at the frontal lobe, than the original PC one. For the occipital and temporal brain regions, the laminated face shield performed better than the original. The composite face shield with extended edges reduced ICP at the temporal lobe but increases ICP significantly at the parietal lobe, which suggests that a greater coverage may not lead to better mitigating effects.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, 119077, Singapore.
Long Bin
0000-0002-3897-7365
LB
Tan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
Kwong Ming
0000-0002-8170-0775
KM
Tse
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, 119077, Singapore.
Yuan Hong
YH
Tan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, 119077, Singapore.
Mohamad Ali Bin
MAB
Sapingi
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, 119077, Singapore.
Vincent Beng Chye
VBC
Tan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, 119077, Singapore.
Heow Pueh
HP
Lee
D001753:Blast Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006260:Head Protective Devices; D006801:Humans; D007427:Intracranial Pressure / Q000502:physiology
aerogel; coupled-Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL); fluid-structure-interaction (FSI); head model; helmet; traumatic brain injury (TBI)