Study on the influence of different interface conditions on the response of finite element human head models under occipital impact loading

The aim of the present study is to obtain a better understanding of skull-brain interface conditions and the influence of the neck region when the finite element human head model under impact loading is constructed. The three-dimensional finite element head model consisting of skin, skull, CSF and neck is constructed based on MRI and CT data. The material properties are adopted from the literature previously published and are homogeneous and isotropic. Next, a crash test is carried out by crashing an iron block impactor on the occipital region of the physical human head neck model in which water is filled and intracranial pressure and head acceleration are measured. The result of the numerical calculation is compared with the result of the experiment for verification of the computer model and good agreement is obtained. The result shows that the tied-type interface condition is preferable than the slide-type condition in order to represent the phenomenon in the physical model. The presence of the neck is important for analysis but the stiffness of the neck seldom affects the intracranial response.