Evaluation of the Human Brain Mechanical Response During an Impact with a Golf Ball

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Keyvan Varmazyari ¹
• Akbar Allahverdizadeh ²
• Farid Vakili-Tahami ¹
• Pezhman Namashiri ¹

¹ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

² Department of Mechatronics Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

10.22067/jacsm.2025.91927.1312

Abstract

In this study, a finite element model of the human head has been developed to investigate the impact of a golf ball. Skull and brain geometries are extracted from medical images and their material models are considered to be linear elastic and viscoelastic, respectively. The ball hits the frontal area of the skull, and to evaluate the mechanical response of the brain under different boundary conditions, two types of fixed and free boundary conditions for the skull have been used. The results show that the skull boundary condition makes a significant difference in the brain's response to impact even at impact duration of 0.7 ms. In the case where the skull is fixed, extreme oscillations in the mechanical response are seen and furthermore, the stress, pressure and head acceleration increase significantly. The results of the present study can be considered as a starting point for investigating the effect of different boundary conditions in human head models and evaluating the behavior of the brain when hit by a projectile.

Keywords

• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Impact
• Brain Deformation
• Finite Element Method
• Computational Modeling
• Biomechanical Analysis

Main Subjects

• Bio mechanics

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