A Numerical Method to Compute Brain Injury Associated with Concussion

Concussion can result from various events in everyday life, including falls, sports collisions, and motor vehicle accidents, which could lead to the disruption of neuronal cell membranes and axonal stretching, leading to a neuro-metabolic cascade of molecular changes in the brain. There is currently no agreement on which computational method can assess such low-level injuries. This paper demonstrates for the first time that the Peak Virtual Power (PVP), based on the Clausius-Duhem inequality, assuming that the injury is represented by the irreversible work in a human body, could be a candidate to capture brain distortion related to concussion. The work is based on the evaluation of the PVP via reconstruction of three NFL helmet-to-helmet impacts by means of finite element analysis, using validated Biocore helmet models fitted with calibrated Hybrid III headforms against linear and angular acceleration impact corridors, which were defined as realistic impact conditions for each collision scenario. Once the exact impact parameters were defined, the Hybrid III headform was replaced with a validated THUMS 4.02 human head model in which the PVP was computed for each head at the corpus callosum and midbrain locations. The results indicate that mild and severe concussions could be prevented for lateral collisions and frontal impacts with PVP values lower than 0.928mW and 9.405mW, respectively, and no concussion would happen in the head vertical impact direction for a PVP value of less than 1.184mW. This innovative method proposes a new paradigm to improve helmet designs, assess sports injuries and improve peoples wellbeing. HighlightsO_LIPeak Virtual Power method can capture brain distortion related to concussion C_LIO_LIConcussion is extracted from corpus callosum and midbrain locations of THUMS4.02 C_LIO_LIPeak power in midbrain less than 1.184mW for a vertical impact leads to no concussion C_LIO_LIPeak power in midbrain more than 0.928mW for a lateral impact leads to concussion C_LIO_LIPeak power in midbrain more than 9.405mW for a front impact leads to concussion C_LI