Investigation of blast-induced cerebrospinal fluid cavitation: Insights from a simplified head surrogate
Author(s)
Yu, Xiancheng
Wu, Tianchi
Nguyen, Thuy-Tien Ngoc
Ghajari, Mazdak
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Blast induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) has been a prevalent injury in recent conflicts. Post-mortem studies have shown damage in the brain tissue close to the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in bTBI cases compared to non-blast TBI cases. CSF cavitation is a potential mechanism for this brain/CSF interface injury. In this study, our aim was to explore the possibility and mechanism of blast induced CSF cavitation. We first developed a one-dimensional simplified human head surrogate and exposed it to nonlethal blast waves using a shock tube. High-speed videography and pressure sensors data showed the formation and collapse of cavitation in the CSF simulant. Then, we explored the mechanism of the cavitation using a finite element model of the head surrogate. We found that the pressure waves transmitting through the skull (outer wave) and tissue simulants (inner wave) are responsible for the generation and collapse of the cavitation bubbles, respectively. Next, we used this insight to explore the possibility of CSF cavitation in the human head using a detailed finite element model. The simulations verified the role of the inner and outer waves in the generation and collapse of cavitation. Our results suggested that CSF cavitation is likely to happen in the human head under blast loading. Finally, we studied the CSF cavitation in head surrogate models with different lengths. The results showed that the head length significantly affected the CSF cavitation, indicating the potential drawback of using small animals to study bTBI in human head. Our findings can improve our understanding of the brain/CSF interface injury after blast exposure and inform the design of protection systems and animal tests.
Date Issued
2022-04-01
Date Acceptance
2021-12-29
Citation
International Journal of Impact Engineering, 2022, 162, pp.1-9
ISSN
0734-743X
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Start Page
1
End Page
9
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Impact Engineering
Volume
162
Copyright Statement
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
The Royal British Legion
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734743X21003213?via%3Dihub
Grant Number
BMPF_P60304
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Mechanical
Mechanics
Engineering
Cerebrospinal fluid cavitation
Traumatic brain injury
Micro-jet
Biomechanics
Blast TBI
POSSIBLE DAMAGE MECHANISM
TRAUMATIC BRAIN-INJURY
DYNAMICS
WATER
0901 Aerospace Engineering
0905 Civil Engineering
0913 Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering & Transports
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 104146
Date Publish Online
2022-01-02