A new biomechanical FE model for blunt thoracic impact

Abstract

In the field of biomechanics, numerical procedures can be used to understand complex phenomena that cannot be analyzed with experimental setups. The use of experimental data from human cadavers can present ethical issues that can be avoided by utilizing biofidelic models. Biofidelic models have been shown to have far-reaching benefits, particularly in evaluating the effectiveness of protective devices such as body armors. For instance, numerical twins coupled with a biomechanical model can be used to assess the efficacy of protective devices against intense external forces. Similarly, the use of human body surrogates in experimental studies has allowed for biomechanical studies, as demonstrated by the development of crash test dummies that are commonly used in automotive testing. This study proposes using numerical procedures and simplifying the structure of an existing biofidelic FE model of the human thorax as a preliminary step in building a physical surrogate. A reverse engineering method was used to ensure the use of manufacturable materials, which resulted in a FE model called SurHUByx FEM (Surrogate HUByx Finite Element Model, with HUByx being the original thorax FE model developed previously). This new simplified model was validated against existing experimental data on cadavers in the context of ballistic impact. SurHUByx FEM, with its new material properties of manufacturable materials, demonstrated consistent behavior with the corresponding biomechanical corridors derived from these experiments. The validation process of this new simplified FE model yielded satisfactory results and is the first step towards the development of its physical twin using manufacturable materials.

Review of non-penetrating ballistic testing techniques for protection assessment: From biological data to numerical and physical surrogates

“…A new simplified FE model called SurHUByx was created using HUByx as a reference, which showed consistent results in impact scenarios. 166 This new model could be used to create a bio-fidelic physical surrogate for future studies. Table 2 provides an overview of the various numerical surrogate models discussed, including their names, authors, components and strength.…”

“…However, since the HTFEM was not bio-fidelic, it cannot serve as a reliable reference for assessing the bio-fidelity of the HTM and Kang models. 154 , Awoukeng Goumtcha 157 , Goumtcha et al 158 , Bodo et al 159 , Bracq 160 , Bracq et al 161 , Bracq et al 163 , Chaufer et al 164 , Bodo and Roth 165 , Chaufer et al 166 Jaycor, 114 SSFEM, [135][136][137] and ATBM 34,[138][139][140] models were developed using an animal FE models to better understand injury mechanisms before building an accurate human FE model. The goal of the authors was to mimic the physiology of living tissues, and they achieved this by first conducting animal testing and creating a numerical model of the animal.…”