The human head is a highly complex structure, with a combination of hard and soft tissues and a variety of materials and interactions. Many researchers have used computational approaches to model the head, and several human finite element head models can be found in the literature. However, most of them are not geometrically accurate – for instance, the brain is simplified to a smooth spherical volume, which poses some concerns regarding boundary conditions and geometrical accuracy. Therefore, an advanced head model of a 28-year-old, designated as aHEAD 28 yo (aHEAD: advanced Head models for safety Enhancement And medical Development), has been developed. The model consists entirely of hexahedral elements for 3D structures of the head such as the cerebellum, skull and cerebrum, with detailed geometry of the gyri and sulci. Additionally, it is one of the first human head approaches published in the literature that includes cerebrospinal fluid simulated by Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and a detailed model of pressurized bridging veins. To support the model’s credibility, this study is focused on physical material testing. A novel comprehensive experimental-computational approach is presented, which involves the brain tissue’s response to induced vibrations. The experiment successfully aimed to validate the material models used in the numerical analysis. Additionally, the authors present a kinematical model validation based on the Hardy experimental cadaver test. The developed model, along with its verification, aims to establish a further benchmark in finite element head modelling and can potentially provide new insights into injury mechanisms.

Limitations in determining the resonance frequency for large models, taking into account non-linearity in the form of contact, initiated work on the creation of a simplified method of estimating these resonance frequencies. The trend in this field is the use of time-domain methods with full contact, or frequency-domain methods which take into account nonlinearity for specific cases. For simplification, classical modal analysis is often used, with boundary conditions taken into account or freeform vibrations, with neglected contact, or with tied contact areas, as though the contact was always closed. The presented approximation method is based on both types of such analysis and compensates for the error of both of the solutions. The method was elaborated with nonlinear dynamics simulations in the time domain. This work presents experimental verification of the method for a simple beam, and for more complex geometry—the satellite antenna panel.