Cavitation Causes Brain Injury

ORAL

Abstract

In this study, an artificial transparent head surrogate with high-speed photography discovers the formation and collapse of cavitation bubbles near the countercoup regions, as the head is exposed to a sudden translational impact. The cavitation damages the brain surface and produces a shock wave through the brain matter. Based on a novel experimental design, this new finding uncovers the mystery of the motion and deformation of the soft brain matter, which is not visible otherwise. It suggests that current brain injury criteria may underestimate the risk of head collision.

*This work was supported by the National Science Foundation CBET Fluid Dynamics Program under Award No. 1511096.

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Publication: Lang, J., Nathan, R., Zhou, D., Zhang, X., Li, B., and Wu, Q.*, 2021 Cavitation Causes Brain Injury. Physics of Fluids, 33:031908

Presenters

  • Rungun Nathan

    • Penn State Berks

Authors

  • Rungun Nathan

    • Penn State Berks

  • Ji Lang

    • Villanova University

  • Dong Zhou

    • Villanova University

  • Xuewei Zhang

    • Villanova University

  • Bo Li

    • Villanova University

  • Qianhong Wu

    • Villanova University