Development and biomechanical testing of full-scale human brain simulant

Abstract

In 21st century, traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) due to blast exposure or head impacts in contact sports, accidents are one of most critical research area. But the area of TBI is poorly investigated due to the limitation of brain tissue availability and related ethical/biosafety issues. In general, the brain tissue is difficult to acquire after the autopsy and test in laboratorial settings. In this work, a full-size human brain simulant was developed using a biofidelic multi-part polymeric material poured into a negative mould which was designed and 3D printed. Based on the number of mild to moderate traumatic brain injury cases reported in the literature, three TBI prominent locations were chosen. The prefrontal cortex of frontal lobe, top portion of parietal lobe and temporal lobe of right hemisphere of the brain were the locations where the experiments were conducted under compressive loading conditions. The load versus displacement data was recorded and converted to the stress-strain plots to analyse the result responses and its implications. Two constitutive hyperelastic models (Yeoh model and Neo-Hookean) were selected for curve fitting and characterizing the non-linear mechanical behavior of the full-scale brain model. Such precisely developed and characterized full-scale brain simulant has not been reported in the literature to date and would be beneficial for simulating a wide range of traumatic brain injuries and surgical training.