The current state of the human head finite element modelling

Abstract

Both head injury prediction and head protection system optimisations need accurate human head surrogates and relevant injury assessment methods. A proposed alternative method to head injury criterion for assessing head injury risk is to use a human head finite element model (FEM). After a detailed literature review on head FEMs, we propose for the first time a benchmark procedure in order to evaluate the ability for a model to predict brain pressure, displacements and skull force deflections. A statistical method has been used to evaluate the ability of six FEMs to predict a set of measured responses obtained under published Post Mortem Human Surrogate impact conditions. The main conclusion is that FE modelling is a good method for assessing head injury risk. All FEMs could predict some lesions and it is possible in the near future to define new head injury criteria based on numerical head models.