Wu John Z, Pan Christopher S, Wimer Bryan M, Rosen Charles L
1 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Morgantown, WV, USA.
2 Department of Neurosurgery, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Proc Inst Mech Eng H. 2017 Jan;231(1):58-68. doi: 10.1177/0954411916678017. Epub 2016 Dec 21.
Traumatic brain injuries are among the most common severely disabling injuries in the United States. Construction helmets are considered essential personal protective equipment for reducing traumatic brain injury risks at work sites. In this study, we proposed a practical finite element modeling approach that would be suitable for engineers to optimize construction helmet design. The finite element model includes all essential anatomical structures of a human head (i.e. skin, scalp, skull, cerebrospinal fluid, brain, medulla, spinal cord, cervical vertebrae, and discs) and all major engineering components of a construction helmet (i.e. shell and suspension system). The head finite element model has been calibrated using the experimental data in the literature. It is technically difficult to precisely account for the effects of the neck and body mass on the dynamic responses, because the finite element model does not include the entire human body. An approximation approach has been developed to account for the effects of the neck and body mass on the dynamic responses of the head-brain. Using the proposed model, we have calculated the responses of the head-brain during a top impact when wearing a construction helmet. The proposed modeling approach would provide a tool to improve the helmet design on a biomechanical basis.
创伤性脑损伤是美国最常见的严重致残性损伤之一。安全帽被认为是减少工作场所创伤性脑损伤风险的重要个人防护装备。在本研究中，我们提出了一种实用的有限元建模方法，该方法适用于工程师优化安全帽设计。有限元模型包括人类头部的所有基本解剖结构（即皮肤、头皮、颅骨、脑脊液、大脑、髓质、脊髓、颈椎和椎间盘）以及安全帽的所有主要工程部件（即外壳和悬挂系统）。头部有限元模型已根据文献中的实验数据进行了校准。由于有限元模型没有包括整个人体，精确考虑颈部和身体质量对动态响应的影响在技术上具有挑战性。已经开发了一种近似方法来考虑颈部和身体质量对头部-大脑动态响应的影响。使用所提出的模型，我们计算了佩戴安全帽时头部-大脑在顶部撞击过程中的响应。所提出的建模方法将提供一种基于生物力学改进头盔设计的工具。
