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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: This study reports the development and the validation of an amniotic fluid model with an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation in the LS-DYNA environment. Dedicated to the study of the mechanisms responsible for fetal injuries resulting from road accidents, the fluid model was validated against dynamics loading tests.
METHOD OF APPROACH: Free fall tests were performed on a deformable enclosed volume filled with water. During the test device braking phase, container deformation induced by inertial effects and fluid/structure interactions was recorded by cinematographic analysis. This data was then compared to the numerical response in the same test conditions. Finally, the coupling between the amniotic fluid model and an already existing finite-element full-body pregnant woman model was validated in terms of pressure. To do so, experimental test results performed on 4 post mortem human surrogates (in which a physical gravid uterus model was inserted) were used.
RESULTS: Both free fall numerical and experimental responses appear strongly correlated. The coupling between the amniotic fluid model and pregnant woman model provide intra-uterine pressure values correlated with the experimental test responses.
CONCLUSIONS: The use of an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian formulation is well adapted to analyze the fluid structure interactions between the amniotic fluid and the gravid uterus during a car crash accident involving pregnant women.
Language: en |