Experimental study of the bone behaviour of the human skull bone for the development of a physical head model

The first part of this work aims to develop an experimental protocol in order to identify the monolayer behaviour of the skull (cortical and spongy bones in the model are represented by a single homogeneous layer). Experimental tests on 20 skulls from unembalmed cadavers have been performed by the LAMIH and the CEESAR. Nineteen specimens were taken from each of the human skulls following a very precise cartography (five frontal, eight parietal, two temporal, one occipital, two on the coronal suture and one on the sagittal suture). Three hundred and eighty specimens were tested in three-point bending test. In the second part, a physical head model was developed. A reference model was realized by using stereolithography method. The main point was to find a resin whose characteristics are similar to human skull bone. Then, this prototype was validated by means of experimental tests similar to Nahum et al. (test in 6 m/s by means of a cylindrical impactor of 6-kg mass).