Computational biology — Modeling of primary blast effects on the central nervous system

In silico investigation of intracranial blast mitigation with relevance to military traumatic brain injury

“…In this work, we utilize and extend the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC)/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Full Head Model (17) to investigate strategies to mitigate the intensity of stress waves within the brain tissue resulting from direct exposure to blast waves. Simulations of blast waves interacting with the unprotected head and with two different types of protection are compared to quantify the characteristics of the stress waves transmitted to the brain tissue in each case.…”

Adoption of the Transport and Burgers' Equations in Modeling Neurological Shock-Waves in the Human Brain Due to Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)

“…Also, it has recently been stated that "clinical needs continue to exceed current knowledge" [3]. This is taken to infer that the mathematics and physics of the initial blast and resulting shock-wave dynamics, as well as mitigation of harmful effects, is not clearly understood in neurological terms [5][6][7], nor suitably explained [2]. It was stated by Mediavilla et al [1] that "the mechanisms of wave propagation in the human head must be investigated."…”

“…Moore et al [2], emphasize the fact that IED mechanics is indeed a non-linear process, and further indicate that a smoothing algorithm is already available within the finite element method (FEM) software that they themselves used in optimizing their own models. To clarify this statement further, they explain that "in addition, the software provides mesh decimation, refinement and smoothing algorithms that can be used to optimize the mesh for computational efficiency."…”

“…From the collection of graphs of pressure vs. time, in Figure 9 of the paper written by Moore et al [2], it is evident that a given sinusoidal function, or at least an appropriate decreasing sinusoidal function representing a negatively damped system, may be applicable to model the propagating shock-wave. This theoretical assumption was outlined in the section Preliminary Mathematical Exposition: Effect of the Directional Nature of Shock-waves on Reflection and Transmission Coefficients, Resulting Pressure-wave and Energies, Related to Conservation Laws and the Rankine-Hugoniot Jump Condition above, and after referral to the literature, for example [15].…”

“…11. For accuracy in the mathematical models, and to compare them with other experimental results and observations, the initial conditions associated with the peak-pressures, P M , will be taken to be T = 4.65 × 10 −4 s and L = 2.325 × 10 −3 m at this value, as outlined by Moore et al [2].…”