Characteristics of HIC in prediction of mTBI relating to crash pulses

The head injury criterion (HIC) is a measure of traumatic head injury arising from an impact involving translational acceleration. In this paper, the HIC has been investigated for its dependency on the shape of the head acceleration profiles. A validated human head model was subjected to a series of similar pulses, having equal HIC values and maximum accelerations, with advanced or retarded peaks. For each case, the brain strain injury predictor was calculated. For validation, a mathematical/analytical model of the brain viscoelastic material was also developed and was subjected to different pulses. The results reflect that the strain in the brain for the two similar acceleration pulses with equal HIC values, even with the same maximum acceleration and impact duration time being entirely different. It is concluded that the pulses with the advanced peak time generate less strain in the brain when compared to that of retarded peak time.