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A Preliminary Step Towards a Physical Surrogate of the Human Calvarium to Model Fracture

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Abstract

A surrogate model of the human calvarium can be used to assess skull-fracture-related head injuries without continuously requiring post-mortem human skulls. Skull simulants developed in the literature often require sophisticated manufacturing procedures and/or materials not always practical when factoring in time or expense considerations. This study’s objective was to fabricate three exploratory surrogate models (1. pure epoxy prototype, 2. epoxy-chalk mix prototype, and 3. epoxy-chalk three-layered prototype) of the calvarium to mimic the calvarium’s mechanical response at fracture using readily available and cost-effective materials, specifically epoxy and chalk. The surrogates and calvaria were subject to quasi-static and dynamic impact 4-point bending and their mechanical responses were compared statistically. Under quasi-static loading, all three surrogates showed a considerable number of differences in mechanical response variables to calvaria that was deemed significant (p < 0.05). Under dynamic impact loading, there was no sufficient evidence to reject that the average mechanical response variables were equal between the epoxy-chalk three-layered prototype and calvaria (p > 0.05). This included force and bending moment at fracture, tensile strain at fracture, tensile and compressive stress at fracture, tensile modulus, and tensile strain rate. Overall, our study illustrates two main remarks: (1) the three exploratory surrogate models are potential candidates for mimicking the mechanical response of the calvarium at fracture during impact loading and (2) employing epoxy and chalk, which are readily available and cost-effective has the potential to mimic the mechanical response of calvaria in impact loading.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the University of Alberta’s Division Anatomy for providing access to human cadavers and the necessary aid during dissection.

Funding

This research was sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory and was accomplished under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-19-2-0336. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation herein.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Instrumentation Laboratory, NW Department of Mechanical Engineering, 10-354 Donadeo Innovation Center for Engineering, University of Alberta, 9211 116 St., Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E1, Canada

    Kevin Adanty & Yizhao Li

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada

    Kevin Adanty, Aaron Brice, Paris Vakiel & Christopher R. Dennison

  3. Department of Surgery, Division of Anatomy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Karyne N. Rabey

  4. Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Karyne N. Rabey

  5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Samer Adeeb

  6. Defense Research and Development Canada, Valcartier Research Centre, Quebec, Canada

    Simon Ouellet

  7. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Dan L. Romanyk

  8. School of Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Dan L. Romanyk

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  1. Kevin Adanty
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Correspondence to Kevin Adanty.

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Adanty, K., Brice, A., Li, Y. et al. A Preliminary Step Towards a Physical Surrogate of the Human Calvarium to Model Fracture. Ann Biomed Eng 51, 2883–2896 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-023-03357-0

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