Abstract

Soft materials such as polymers and biological tissues have several engineering and biomechanical applications. These materials exhibit complex mechanical characteristics and the need to accurately predict their behavior has posed a tremendous challenge for scientists and engineers.

In this talk, I shall present a seamless, fully variational constitutive model capable of capturing several complex mechanical characteristics exhibited by such materials. Application to traumatic brain injury (TBI) under impact/acceleration loading will be presented. Clinically observed brain damage is reproduced and a predictive capability of the distribution, intensity, and reversibility/irreversibility of brain tissue damage will be demonstrated. Another application to ballistic impact on a polyurea-retrofitted DH36 steel plate is simulated and validated, and computational capability for assessing the blast performance of metal/elastomer composite shells will also be presented.

Future directions of this work may lead to the formulation of head-injury criteria for medical, governmental, and industrial applications; addressing the definition of clinical-biomechanical injury thresholds and tolerances; the simulation of a wide range of injuries, including blast-induced TBI and the effects of growing tumors; and the design and the assessment of effective protective devices, such as helmets including honeycomb materials, polymers, or foam padding.