On the Development of Interspecies Traumatic Brain Injury Correspondence Rules

Traumatic brain injury analysis in human is exceedingly difficult due to the methods in which data can be collected, thus many researchers commonly implement animal surrogates. However, use of these surrogates is costly and restricted by ethical concerns and test logistics. Computational models and simulations do not have these constraints and can produce significant amounts of data in relatively short periods. This paper shows the development of a human head and neck model and a full body porcine model. Both models are developed from high-resolution CT and MRI scans and the latest low-to-high strain rate mechanical data available in the literature to represent tissue component material behaviors. Both models are validated against experiments from the literature and used to complete an initial interspecies correspondence rule development study for blast overpressure effects. The results indicate the similarities in the way injury develops in the pig brain and human brain but these similarities occur at very different insult levels. These results are extended by a study, which shows that blast peak pressure is the driving factor in injury prediction and, depending on the injury metric used, significantly different injuries could be predicted.