A new biomechanical FE model for blunt thoracic impact

Area of Science:

• Biomechanics
• Computational modeling
• Biomaterials

Background:

• Numerical simulations offer ethical alternatives to cadaveric experiments in biomechanics.
• Biofidelic models are crucial for assessing protective gear efficacy, like body armor.
• Existing human body surrogates, such as crash test dummies, highlight the value of such models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To simplify an existing biofidelic finite element (FE) model of the human thorax.
• To incorporate manufacturable materials into the FE model for potential physical surrogate development.
• To validate the simplified FE model against experimental data for ballistic impact scenarios.

Main Methods:

• Utilized numerical procedures to simplify a pre-existing biofidelic FE model of the human thorax.
• Employed reverse engineering to select manufacturable materials for the new model, named SurHUByx FEM.
• Validated the SurHUByx FEM against established biomechanical corridors from cadaveric ballistic impact experiments.

Main Results:

• The simplified SurHUByx FEM, using manufacturable materials, exhibited behavior consistent with experimental biomechanical corridors.
• Validation against cadaveric data for ballistic impacts yielded satisfactory results.
• The study successfully created a simplified, validated FE model as a precursor to a physical twin.

Conclusions:

• The validated SurHUByx FEM represents a significant step towards creating a physical human thorax surrogate.
• The use of manufacturable materials and numerical simplification demonstrates a viable approach for developing biofidelic physical models.
• This research bridges computational biomechanics and physical surrogate development for protective device evaluation.