Material characterization and modeling of head for dynamic simulations

Summary The modeling of the response of the human head to blast like loading is of importance for many applications including the study of traumatic brain injury resulting from improvised explosive devices. One key issue in simulating the response of the head is to have models that are characteristic of the response of the head and its components under these conditions. We review different characterization efforts for evaluating the response of the skin, skull, and brain within this window of response and use these results to develop models appropriate for the characterization of each component. We discuss efforts made to construct an artificial head model capable of simulating similar results in a blast environment.