Influence of Impact Velocity and Angle in a Detailed Reconstruction of a Bicycle Accident

Bicycle accidents have become the most common cause of serious injury in the traffic during the last couple of years in Sweden. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the input variables, initial velocity and head orientation, of a bicycle accident reconstruction on the strain levels in the brain using a detailed FE head model. The accident involved a non-helmeted 68 year old male who sustained a linear skull fracture, contusions, acute subdural hematoma, and small bleeding at the swelling (subarachnoid blood). The orientation of the head just before impact was determined from the swelling appearing in the computer tomography (CT) scans. The head model used in this study was developed at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. The stress in the cranial bone, first principal strain in the brain tissue and acceleration were determined. The model was able to predict a strain pattern that correlated well with the medical images from the victim. The variation study showed that the tangential velocity had a large effect on the strain levels in the studied case. The strain pattern indicated larger areas of high strain with increased tangential velocity especially at the more superior sections.

Jaar van publicatie:2012