ARUP; ISBN: 978-0-9562121-5-3 - CMBBE 2012 - Cardiff University

Figure 6. Indentation of sheep brain in-situ: comparison of modelling and experimental results
6. CONCLUSIONS
In this study, we present the results of experiments on sheep brain indentation in the
area of the brain-skull interface and derive information about the interface’s mechanical
properties by complementing analysis of the results of these experiments with brain
modelling (non-linear FE procedures). This allows us to distinguish between the
contribution of the brain tissue and the interface to the reaction force exerted on the
indentor. By using linear springs, representing the brain-skull interface, we obtained
good agreement between the calculated and the experimentally measured forcedisplacement
relationship in a simulation of in-situ sheep brain indentation. This
−1
enabled us to suggest the overall stiffness of the interface as 11.45
Nmm . 2
mm
7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The first author of the paper was a Prescott scholar during this research. The financial
support of the Australian Research Council (Discovery grant DP1092893), National
Health and Medical Research Council (grant 1006031) and Medical and Health
Research Infrastructure Fund of Western Australia in 2009-2011 is gratefully
acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge the collaboration of personnel within the
department of Medical Physics and department of Radiology of Royal Perth Hospital.
8. REFERENCES
Reaction force (N)
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
Experiment
Simulation
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Displacement (mm)
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