A Review of Validation Methods for the Intracranial Response of FEHM to Blunt Impacts

Abstract

The following is a review of the processes currently employed when validating the intracranial response of Finite Element Head Models (FEHM) against blunt impacts. The authors aim to collate existing validation tools, their applications and findings on their effectiveness to aid researchers in the validation of future FEHM and potential efforts in improving procedures. In this vain, publications providing experimental data on the intracranial pressure, relative brain displacement and brain strain responses to impacts in human subjects are surveyed and key data are summarised. This includes cases that have previously been used in FEHM validation and alternatives with similar potential uses. The processes employed to replicate impact conditions and the resulting head motion are reviewed, as are the analytical techniques used to judge the validity of the models. Finally, publications exploring the validation process and factors affecting it are critically discussed. Reviewing FEHM validation in this way highlights the lack of a single best practice, or an obvious solution to create one using the tools currently available. There is clear scope to improve the validation process of FEHM, and the data available to achieve this. By collecting information from existing publications, it is hoped this review can help guide such developments and provide a point of reference for researchers looking to validate or investigate FEHM in the future, enabling them to make informed choices about the simulation of impacts, how they are generated numerically and the factors considered during output assessment, whilst being aware of potential limitations in the process.