Surrogate Modeling of Brain Trauma Risks Associated With Soccer Ball Headers

Abstract

This study presents a coupled mathematical surrogate modeling and finite element analysis to quantify the risk of brain injury resulting from contact between a soccer ball and a player's head. Our approach implements a previously developed and validated regulation size finite element soccer ball and a 50th percentile adult male head model to inform the surrogate models regarding the positioning of the soccer ball's impact, inbound velocity, and the role of the activation of the neck musculature. Surrogate models are developed using injury metrics such as HIC15 and BrIC, which can be correlated to clinical assessments. The surrogate models predict occipital-temporal impacts as the highest risk of injury along a perpendicular axis and highlight the risk of increased velocity and passive neck musculature. The surrogate model predicts the worst-case scenarios to produce HIC15 and BrIC values of approximately 80 and 0.65, which correlate to 4.27% of a minor head injury (AIS1) and 71% of a moderate head injury (AIS2), respectively. These models are also used to develop a graphical user interface that may be used to supplement existing clinical knowledge of soccer headings to improve the head health of athletes participating in the game of soccer.