Estimating Brain Injury Risk from Shipborne Underwater Blasts Using a High-fidelity Finite Element Head Model.

Introduction: Assessing the survivability of, and potential injury to, a ship's crew from underwater blast is crucial to understanding the operating capability of a military vessel following blast exposure. One form of injury that can occur and affect a crew member's ability to perform tasks is traumatic brain injury (TBI). To evaluate the risk of TBI from underwater blasts, injury metrics based on linear head acceleration have traditionally been used.

Beyond symptomatic diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury.

It is commonly assumed that there is no brain injury if there are no noticeable symptoms following a head impact. There is growing evidence that traumatic brain injuries can occur with no outward symptoms and that the damage from these injuries can accumulate over time resulting in disease and impairment later in life. It is time to rethink the role that symptoms play in traumatic brain injury and adopt a quantitative understanding of brain health at the cellular level to improve the way we diagnose, prevent, and ultimately heal brain injury.

Head Impact Modeling to Support a Rotational Combat Helmet Drop Test.

Introduction: The Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) military specification (mil-spec) provides blunt impact acceleration criteria that must be met before use by the U.S. warfighter.