A 3-D Rat Brain Model for Blast-Wave Exposure: Effects of Brain Vasculature and Material Properties.

ABSTRACT: Exposure to blast waves is suspected to cause primary traumatic brain injury. However, existing finite-element (FE) models of the rat head lack the necessary fidelity to characterize the biomechanical responses in the brain due to blast exposure. They neglect to represent the cerebral vasculature, which increases brain stiffness, and lack the appropriate brain material properties characteristic of high strain rates observed in blast exposures. To address these limitations, we developed a high-fidelity three-dimensional FE model of a rat head. We explicitly represented the rat's cerebral vasculature and used high-strain-rate material properties of the rat brain. For a range of blast overpressures (100 to 230 kPa) the brain-pressure predictions matched experimental results and largely overla

SUBMITTER: Unnikrishnan G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6757019 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature