Print Email Facebook Twitter Finite Element Analysis of Infant Skull Trauma using CT Images Title Finite Element Analysis of Infant Skull Trauma using CT Images Author Óskarsdóttir, A. Contributor Kleiven, S. (mentor) Vuik, C. (mentor) Faculty Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science Department Applied mathematics Programme COSSE Date 2014-06-20 Abstract Some cases of infant skull fracture fall under the category of forensic study where it is not obvious whether the head trauma happened due to an accident or abuse. To be able to determine the cause of the head trauma with sufficient accuracy, biomechanical analysis using finite element modeling of the infant cranium has been established. By simulating the trauma, one may be able to obtain the fracture propagation of the skull and from it determine if the scenario narrative is plausible. Geometry of skull, sutures, scalp and brain of a 2 month old infant head was obtained using CT images and meshed using voxel hexahedral meshing. Simulation of an impact to the head from a fall of 0.82 m height, to a rigid floor, was carried out in the non-linear finite element program LS-Dyna. Two scenarios were simulated: an impact to the occipital-parietal bones and an impact to the right parietal bone. The fracture propagation was obtained using the Chang-Chang Composite Failure Model as a constitutive model for the skull bones. The amount of material parameters gathered in the present study to predict fracture of the infant skull has not been obtained before, to the best knowledge of author. Validation of the models’ ability to show relatively correct fracture propagation was carried out by comparing the obtained fracture pattern from the parietal-occipital impact against published fracture patterns of infant PMHS skulls from a free fall onto a hard surface. The fracture pattern was found to be in good compliance with the published data. The fracture pattern in the parietal bone from the impact was compared against a fracture pattern from a previously constructed model at STH. The patterns of the models show some similarities but improvements to the model and further validations need to be carried out. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:16b790e9-f8f1-4864-be3e-6b2558472bde Part of collection Student theses Document type master thesis Rights (c) 2014 Óskarsdóttir, A. Files PDF Finite_Element_Analysis_o ... s_2012.pdf 7.49 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:16b790e9-f8f1-4864-be3e-6b2558472bde/datastream/OBJ/view