SUFEHM_13

In the context of head injury prevention Strasbourg University has a leading position in human head finite element modeling and has proposed recently a first set of improved, model based, head injury criteria. The proposed method is in total rupture with existing methods, as current head impact test methods consider a rigid headform fitted with accelerometers in order to evaluate the head injury risk. The nearly 20 years research results have been published and six license agreements have been granted over to industrial research departments and universities. Competitive head models exist but none of them considers simultaneously skull fracture, subdural hematoma and neurological injuries. The objective of the present project is to improve the current model and to bring it to SUFEHM-13 (Strasbourg University Finite Element Head Model 2013) by implementing unique brain constitutive law and by consolidating head injury criteria through an extensive real world head trauma simulation campaign. For the first time the injury metric will consider the computation of axonal elongation. The novel head injury prediction tool will be coupled to a user friendly pre - post processor in order to enable a large diffusion of this technology not only in the automotive head protection context but also for motorcycle and bicycle helmet optimization. The transfer of the proposed technology into head protection standard tests is another development which is under discussion within several standard organizations. Finally the potential of the tool for defense applications as well as forensic and biomedical applications will be consolidated in order to provide a product which provides a solution to any issue linked to the static and dynamical cranio-cerebral loading and deformation. In this project, valorization remains a key issue. It is our objective to increase considerably the number of licenses of the consolidated “head injury prediction tool” towards a large range of partners. An important effort towards international harmonization is planned in order to help diffusion. From 2 to 3 licenses a year in 2010, it is believed that by 2013 the number of interested (and identified) partners could grow to 30. Further evolution especially for new applications will be organized based on a partnership with an industrial entity which already showed interest in the proposed technology.