Title: The effect of shock waves on brain blood pressure; experimental and computational studies

Authors: Siavash Hashemi; Douglas Jahnke; Ali M. Sadegh; Yiannis Andreopoulos

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, The City College of The City University of New York (CUNY), New York 10031, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The City College of The City University of New York (CUNY), New York 10031, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The City College of The City University of New York (CUNY), New York 10031, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The City College of The City University of New York (CUNY), New York 10031, USA

Abstract: In this paper, the induced pressure in blood vessels of the brain due to a blast has been investigated. An idealised experiment was designed, consisting of a ballistic rectangular gel block with a built-in conduit filled with water, representing the brain with a blood vessel, was placed in front of a shock tube. The experimental setup was simulated by a local 3D FE model which was validated with the experimental data. Results demonstrated that the skull, brain and meningeal layers reduce the intensity of a primary blast wave by a factor of 86 until it reaches the brain vessels. Furthermore, it was concluded that the striking shock waves with BOP greater than 5 MPa would increase the blood pressure to the critical level of 57 kPa which could onset failure and cause hematoma.

Keywords: shock waves; blast waves; brain blood pressure; finite element analysis; FEA; hematoma; blood vessels; simulation; 3D modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJECB.2016.081761

International Journal of Experimental and Computational Biomechanics, 2016 Vol.4 No.1, pp.59 - 78

Received: 09 Jul 2016
Accepted: 03 Aug 2016
Published online: 24 Jan 2017 *

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