Applying DTI white matter orientations to finite element head models to examine diffuse TBI under high rotational accelerations

The in-vivo mechanical response of neural tissue during impact loading of the head is simulated using geometrically accurate finite element (FE) head models. However, current FE models do not account for the anisotropic elastic material behaviour of brain tissue. In soft biological tissue, there is a correlation between internal microscopic structure and macroscopic mechanical properties. Therefore, constitutive equations are important for the numerical analysis of the soft biological tissues. By exploiting diffusion tensor techniques the anisotropic orientation of neural tissue is incorporated into a non-linear viscoelastic material model for brain tissue and implemented in an explicit FE analysis. The viscoelastic material parameters are derived from published data and the viscoelastic model is used to describe the mechanical response of brain tissue. The model is formulated in terms of a large strain viscoelastic framework and considers non-linear viscous deformations in combination with non-linear elastic behaviour. The constitutive model was applied in the University College Dublin brain trauma model (UCDBTM) (i.e. three-dimensional finite element head model) to predict the mechanical response of the intra-cranial contents due to rotational injury.