Development of a computational biomechanical infant model for the investigation of infant head injury by shaking

Abstract

The inertial loading thresholds for infant head injury are of profound medico-legal and safety-engineering significance. Injurious experimentation with infants is impossible, and physical and computational biomechanical modelling has been frustrated by a paucity of paediatric biomechanical data. This study describes the development of a computational infant model (MD Adams®) by combining radiological, kinematic, mechanical modelling and literature-based data. Previous studies have suggested the neck as critical in determining inertial head loading. The biomechanical effects of varying neck stiffness parameters during simulated shakes were investigated, measuring peak translational and rotational accelerations and rotational velocities at the vertex. A neck quasi-static stiffness of 0.6 Nm/deg and lowest rate-dependent stiffness predisposed the model infant head to the highest accelerations. Plotted against scaled infant injury tolerance curves, simulations produced head accelerations commensurate with those produced during simulated physical model shaking reported in the literature. The model provides a computational platform for the exploitation of improvements in head biofidelity for investigating a wider range of injurious scenarios.