Blast‐induced traumatic brain injury research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Abstract

Our blast‐induced TBI research has computational and experimental components. Our numerical hydro‐structural simulations show that non‐lethal blasts can induce sufficient flexure of the skull to generate potentially damaging loads in the brain, even if no impact occurs. The possibility that this mechanism may contribute to TBI has implications for the diagnosis of soldiers and the design of protective equipment such as helmets. Our experimental work involves designing and testing blast dosimeters, which are needed to quantify the blast environment around the soldier, independent of the mechanism(s) causing TBI. One system that uses MEMS sensors incorporated into the helmet and suspension would record peak pressure, positive‐phase duration, blast direction, loads directly on the skull, and accelerations. Another system uses less sophisticated, inexpensive, small, lightweight, disposable, unpowered sensors that act as “yes‐no” gauges that indicate the blast magnitude by visual inspection of the gauge. This system is a trade‐off between quantity and quality of data, which may be viable, based on current DoD needs. [This work performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE‐AC52‐07NA27344.]