Assessment of brain response in operators subject to recoil force from firing long-range rifles.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) may be caused by occupational hazards military personnel encounter, such as falls, shocks, exposure to blast overpressure events, and recoil from weapon firing. While it is important to protect against injurious head impacts, the repeated exposure of Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) service members to sub-concussive events during the course of their service may lead to a significant reduction in quality of life. Symptoms may include headaches, difficulty concentrating, and noise sensitivity, impacting how personnel complete their duties and causing chronic health issues.

Brain Material Properties and Integration of Arachnoid Complex for Biofidelic Impact Response for Human Head Finite Element Model.

Finite element head models offer great potential to study brain-related injuries; however, at present may be limited by geometric and material property simplifications required for continuum-level human body models. Specifically, the mechanical properties of the brain tissues are often represented with simplified linear viscoelastic models, or the material properties have been optimized to specific impact cases. In addition, anatomical structures such as the arachnoid complex have been omitted or implemented in a simple lumped manner.

Impact Location Dependence of Behind Armor Blunt Trauma Injury Assessed Using a Human Body Finite Element Model.

Behind armor blunt trauma (BABT), resulting from dynamic deformation of protective ballistic armor into the thorax, is currently assessed assuming a constant threshold of maximum backface deformation (BFDs) (44 mm). Although assessed for multiple impacts on the same armor, testing is focused on armor performance (shot-to-edge and shot-to-shot) without consideration of the underlying location on the thorax. Previous studies identified the importance of impacts on organs of animal surrogates wearing soft armor.