A new test set-up for skull fracture characterisation.

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Trauma Research
• Forensic Engineering

Background:

• Skull fractures are severe head injuries requiring accurate impact analysis.
• Existing impact testing methods (free-fall, drop tower, piston-driven) have limitations.
• A need exists for a more controlled and accurate head impact testing setup.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel two-pendulum setup for cadaver head impact testing.
• To accurately measure local skull deformation and impact force.
• To calculate the energy absorbed by the skull until fracture.

Main Methods:

• A new two-pendulum setup was designed, allowing 1-degree of freedom rotational motion.
• The impactor pendulum strikes the cadaver head, attached to the second pendulum.
• Local skull deformation and impact force were measured at 65 kHz, calculating absorbed energy.

Main Results:

• The setup accurately measured force and local skull deformation until fracture in 14 tests.
• The absorbed energy until skull fracture was calculated with a 10% uncertainty interval.
• Blunt impact-induced skull fracture occurs before significant head motion.

Conclusions:

• The proposed two-pendulum setup accurately calculates skull fracture energy absorption.
• This setup provides a well-controlled measurement environment without altering skull stress distribution.
• Findings indicate skull fracture precedes head motion in blunt impacts.