MRE-based modeling of head trauma

The high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging-based finite element head model, previously presented and validated in Chen and Ostoja-Starzewski (2010), Chen et al. (2012), and Madhukar et al. (2017), is extended by considering the heterogeneities of the white matter structures captured through the use of magnetic resonance elastography (Madhukar and Ostoja-Starzewski, 2020). This approach imparts more sophistication to the numerical model and yields results that more closely match experimental results. It is found that the peak pressure more closely matches the experiments as compared to the heterogeneous case. Qualitatively, we find differences in stress wave propagation near the corpus callosum and the corona radiata, which are stiffer on average than the global white matter. We are able to study the effects of these stiff structures on transient stress wave propagation within the cerebrum, something that cannot be done with a homogenized material model.