Analysis of Three Different Types of Closed-Head Injuries

by Rikki Brown

Submitted : Fall 2013

The purpose of this report is to analyze three different blunt trauma scenarios that may result in closed-head injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries and skull fractures. The first scenario involved a situation in which a hospital patient with a certain mass (m) falls off of a hospital bed from an arbitrary height (h). An example was shown in a case where the person was actually a toddler and the height of the bed was 1.00m. The force applied to this toddler’s head can be compared to the injury threshold it would take to cause a closed-head injury. The second scenario involves the same type of calculations; however the person is now an adult falling off of their motorcycle or bicycle, and the thickness of the helmet can be added to the stopping distance to help prevent injury. The purpose of the final scenario was to analyze an inelastic car collision in which a car hits a still object, such as a tree, with a certain impact velocity. We assumed that the final velocity in this case was zero, and used this assumption to calculate the impact force that the driver may suffer. In this case, the air bag is most likely to contribute to the stopping distance if it is functioning properly. This is the factor that saves lives every day since the air bag can absorb so much more from a head hitting it, compared to a head colliding with a windshield, steering wheel, or dashboard.

[ Back ]