The Bentil Group

Overview

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Mechanisms.

There is a paucity in the literature on experiments conducted to investigate the dynamic mechanical behavior of the brain, other soft biological tissues, and biomaterials.

An understanding of the mechanical behavior of soft materials (e.g. brain) is beneficial and invaluable to many biomedical applications. These include the design of biocompatible neural prosthesis, active and passive restraint systems, haptic surgical training simulators, and an improved helmet for football athletes and also Soldiers and Marines exposed to an improvised explosive device (IED).

The Bentil Group’s mission is to conduct experiments that will increase our understanding of traumatic brain injury (TBI) mechanisms due to both blast and blunt impact.

We apply noninvasive techniques such as three-dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC) to measure the full-field deformations and strains of soft materials subjected to both blast and blunt impact. The 3D-DIC analysis utilize images obtained from high-speed digital cameras in stereovision. Finite element (FE) models simulating the experimental results provide additional insight into the soft material’s mechanical response.

The experimental and computational results by The Bentil Group and Collaborators aid in the development of clinical diagnostic tools for assessing injury severity and countermeasures for reducing injury.