1. ¹Department of Biomedical Informatics, New York, NY, U.S.A.
2. ²Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY, U.S.A.
3. ³CFD Research Corp., Huntsville, AL, U.S.A.

Correspondence: Celina Imielinska, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, 701 W. 168th Str., HHSC 201, New York, NY 10032, U.S.A. Tel: 212 305 1440; Fax: 212 305 8388 E-mail: ci42@columbia.edu

Received 20 January 2005; Revised 27 July 2006; Accepted 16 September 2006; Published online 30 November 2006.

Abstract

We develop a multi-scale high-fidelity biomechanical and physiologically based modeling tools for trauma (ballistic/impact and blast) injury to brain, lung and spinal cord for resuscitation, treatment planning and design of personnel protection. Several approaches have been used to study blast and ballistic/impact injuries. Dummy containing pressure sensors and synthetic phantoms of human organs have been used to study bomb blast and car crashes. Large animals like pigs also have been equipped with pressure sensors exposed to blast waves. But these methods do not provide anatomically and physiologically, full optimization of body protection design and require animal sacrifice. Anatomy and medical image-based high-fidelity computational modeling can be used to analyze injury mechanisms and to optimize the design of body protection. This paper presents novel approach of coupled computational fluid dynamics and computational structures dynamics to simulate fluid (air, cerebrospinal fluid)–solid (cranium, brain tissue) interaction during ballistic/blast impact. We propose a trauma injury simulation pipeline concept staring from anatomy and medical image-based high-fidelity 3D geometric modeling, extraction of tissue morphology, generation of computational grids, multi-scale biomechanical and physiological simulations, and data visualization.