Head and Neck Injury Risk Predicted by Finite Element ATDs and Human Body Models in the Aerospace Landing Environment

Abstract

The advent of commercial crewed spaceflight has increased the number of people expected to travel to space and back. Unlike motor vehicle crashes (MVCs), in which 2.3 crashes are expected for every million vehicle miles traveled in the US, spaceflight occupants are guaranteed to experience dynamic loads during launch and landing. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has placed emphasis on protecting occupants against injuries that can hinder return to flight status and self-egress capability. The head and neck are two regions of the body that if injured can drastically affect these two areas. Furthermore, the knowledge around closed-head injury is not complete. Currently, the Hybrid III and Test Device for Human Occupant Restraint (THOR) are in use for assessing injury risk to future occupants of spaceflight vehicles, but both were developed for primarily frontal MVC conditions and scenarios much more severe than those expected to be sustained by spaceflight crew. This study aims to enhance the understanding of ATD predictive capabilities in spaceflight landing scenarios, especially with respect to head and neck injury. Additionally, this study seeks to develop skull deformation metrics that are usable in MVC scenarios for predicting strain distribution in the brain.